Class £ilMa£ 
Book. 1^84 5 6 
Copyright^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




MARTIN RUTER 



MARTIN RUTER 



By 

ERNEST ASHTON SMITH 

1 




THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI 



Copyright, 19 IS, by 
ERNEST ASHTON SMITH 



JUN -8 iSiS 

©Q.A406205 



To 

BISHOP EDWIN HOLT HUGHES 

IN 

PLEASANT REMEMBRANCE 

OF 

OHIO WESLEYAN DAYS 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

Foreword 6 

I. The Youthful Itinerant 7 

II. The Self-Taught Scholar 28 

III. The Educational Pioneer 40 

IV. Editor and Author 62 

V. The President of Allegheny 80 

VI. The Apostle to Texas 98 

VII. The Man of God 120 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Martin Ruter Frontispiece ^ 

Ruter Hall Facing Page 97 y 



FOREWORD 

In the Autobiography of Dan Young, 

speaking of early days in New Hampshire 
with Martin Ruter, there occurs this obser- 
vation : "For some strange reason the history 
of this great, good, and distinguished man 
of God is much neglected, and although one 
of the most thorough, successful, and 
worthy theologians of the New World, yet 
the memory of his worthy deeds seems likely 
to be in a great measure lost." The accurate 
historian of Methodism, Abel Stevens, once 
himself a missionary to Texas, has made 
appreciative and frequent mention in several 
works of the activities of Dr. Ruter. The 
most extensive, though brief, account of 
his life has been written by his daughter, 
Mrs. S. R. Campbell, and appears in Sum- 
mer's Sketches of Eminent Itinerant Min- 
isters. The minutes of several Conferences 
contain the official record of his services 
for the kingdom of God. In his generation 
his name was as ointment poured forth in 
very many Methodist communities. It is a 
labor of love to bring this tribute, imperfect 
though it be, to the memory of the Rev. 
Martin Ruter, D.D. 

6 



CHAPTER I 



THE YOUTHFUL ITINERANT 

The apostolic Fathers of Methodism in 
America of the era of Francis Asbury were 
conspicuous for versatility and vigor of 
achievement. In those bygone days of 
primitive conditions, they were men of 
marvelous mobility. The senior superin- 
tendent in his forty-three years of ministry 
covered the expanding areas incessantly, 
crossing the Alleghanies sixty times. Bishop 
Hedding jaunts from the Genesee Confer- 
ence to Georgia with horse and sulky and 
in twelve years travels forty thousand miles. 

Nothing of sectionalism marked that 
early Methodism. Jesse Lee, the Virginian, 
became the apostle of New England ; Joshua 
Soule, of Maine, the apologist of the pro- 
slavery region, transferred in the division 
of 1844 to the episcopacy of the Church 
South. The paramount concern of every 
itinerant was to preach the gospel. There 
was a lively, realizing sense of the wrath 
to come. The evangelistic seed yielded its 
fruit in an increase of communicants from 
six hundred in 1772 to fifteen thousand in 
1784, and six hundred thousand in 1833. 
7 



8 



Martin Ruter 



The march of Methodism combined a 
succession of ministries to the frontiers with 
the occupation of the older settled regions. 
This enlarging Church called forth a variety 
of functions to serve its complex interests, 
and in the providence of God a leadership 
was not lacking, that perfected its peculiar 
ecclesiastical organization and its sustain- 
ing agencies. 

Among these Makers of Methodism 
Martin Ruter held a worthy place as itin- 
erant, pioneer, missionary, educator, author, 
and practical Christian statesman. Bishop 
Simpson in the Hundred Years of Meth- 
odism, describing the few men of creative 
minds who in the second decade of the 
nineteenth century became leaders in their 
respective spheres and gave breadth and 
energy to connectional movements, has 
named six : Joshua Soule, John Emory, and 
Elijah Hedding, bishops of Methodism; 
Nathan Bangs, the church historian and 
editor; Wilbur Fisk, the first president of 
Wesleyan University; and Martin Ruter. 
The career of this sixth leader was rounded 
out in the comparatively brief span of 
thirty-six years. His untimely demise at 
the age of fifty-three in the full flood of the 
busiest activities of all his years has fre- 
quently been the occasion of fertile conjee- 



The Youthful Itinerant 9 



ture as to what greater triumphs Dr. Ruter 
might have attained had he been spared the 
allotted three score and ten. 

Martin Ruter was born in Charlton, - 
Worcester County, Massachusetts, April 3, 
1785. He was the son of Job Ruter, a 
blacksmith, known for his honesty and in- 
dustry, a deeply pious man. The family 
moved to Bradford, Vermont, in 1793, and 
thence to Corinth in 1798. The parents 
were in early life members of the Baptist 
Church, but they united with the first Meth- 
odist class formed in their Vermont neigh- 
borhood. In fact, the home of Job Ruter 
was a place for preaching, and its hospi- 
tality was always open to all itinerants. In 
his autobiography Martin Ruter records 
that when not more than three years of age 
he had serious impressions, and these in- 
creased with years until 1799, when he 
resolved to devote his life to religion. His 
intimate friend, the Rev. Laban Clark, says 
there was nothing remarkable in Martin's 
first experience. He was diffident and re- 
tiring, but with his accustomed modesty 
there was a stability and gravity which was 
uncommon for his age, as he was only in 
his fifteenth year. 

The school advantages of the youth were 
meager, and in the following winter the 



10 



Martin Ruter 



deeply formative influence of his life came 
while he was studying at Bradford. Here 
he took board with Mrs. Peckett, an Eng- 
lish lady whose maiden name was Margaret 
Appleton, and who had been the house- 
keeper for John Wesley. Moreover, in 
England she had been the bandmate of Miss 
Bosanquet, afterward Mrs. Fletcher of 
Madeley. Naturally, she was deeply versed 
in Christian experience and had in her home 
most of the works of Wesley. She was a 
true mother in Israel to Martin, whom she 
advised and encouraged in his religious 
experience and duty, and taught the 
peculiar forms and usages of the founder 
of Methodism. The home of Mrs. Peckett, 
like that of the Ruters, was the gathering 
place for Methodist preachers. 

Upon young Ruter's return to Corinth 
he was laboring deeply under the conviction 
of offering himself for the Christian min- 
istry, but the greatness of the work and 
his unpreparedness for the undertaking 
made him feel that the step was one to be 
taken only in the distant future. In Septem- 
ber, 1800, the Quarterly Meeting for the 
circuit was held in Vershire. The Rev. 
John Broadhead, a giant of early Meth- 
odism in New England, was the presiding 
elder. The congregation was so large that 



The Youthful Itinerant 11 



no building could hold it, and preaching 
took place in a grove near at hand. As 
the people thronged about the house the 
boy of fifteen appeared at a window and 
exhorted the company. His friend Clark 
writes: "His soul seemed fired with an 
affectionate and holy zeal for the conver- 
sion of the people; his language flowed 
with a manly eloquence. The multitude 
without wept and there was a great shout 
within, while all marveled to hear such 
words from one so young." The elder 
preached with great power and the results 
were typical of those days of direct, effec- 
tive appeal. Two scores of persons who 
had cried out in penitence in the progress 
of the sermon were lying on the ground, 
prone as the slain of a battle. 

Abel Stevens in the pages of his Memo- 
rials of Methodism tells the graphic story 
of the call to the itinerancy: "Mr. Broad- 
head at the conclusion of the meeting came 
to Martin and threw his arms around him 
and said, 'Martin, I want you to go with 
me,' to which he replied with childlike sim- 
plicity, 'If my father will let me, I will go.' 
On going into the house, the elder went to 
Mr. Ruter, saying, 'You must let Martin 
go with me,' to which he objected, on ac- 
count of his being too young. 'But/ said 



12 



Martin Ruter 



the elder, 'he has got the broad-ax, and he 
must go and hew down the forest/ The 
father made many other objections which 
the elder obviated, until the old gentleman 
consented and agreed to fit him out for the 
journey in two weeks. Mr. Broadhead re- 
turned to Martin and informed him that 
his father had given his consent, and he 
must be ready in two weeks to go with 
him around the district. The young man 
was taken by surprise and the thought 
rushed into his mind, 'He will set me to 
preaching, and I am not sure that God has 
called me to the work; and it will be a 
terrible thing for me to run before I am 
sent.' He was greatly affected and so dis- 
tressed that he retired in secret, and, with 
his Bible in his hand, he fell upon his knees 
and struggled in prayer for direction; then 
he opened his Bible and the first sentence 
that struck his eye was this: The Master 
is come and calleth for thee/ These words 
were accompanied with such an evidence of 
his call to the work of the ministry that, 
with a flood of tears, he answered, 'I will 
go-' 

"When his mother learned the arrange- 
ment she seemed irreconcilable and went 
to the presiding elder and asked, with much 
earnestness: 'What are you doing? How 



The Youthful Itinerant 13 



can you think of setting that child to preach- 
ing ? It cannot, it must not be ; he is but a 
child, and it will be his ruin.' Brother 
Broadhead heard her, and, with his accus- 
tomed good humor, said, 'Sister, hold your 
peace; the Lord hath need of him and he 
must go/ Seeing she could gain nothing 
by her remonstrance, she left him and be- 
took herself to her closet. With agonized 
feelings she opened the Bible, and the words 
she first read were, 'Loose him and let him 
go/ Her spirit suddenly became tranquil, 
and she was enabled to say, 'Lord, he is 
thine ; and I give him to thee, and the work 
to which thou hast called him/ " 

The district of the presiding elder was 
the New London, of the New York Con- 
ference, which extended from Connecticut 
through Massachusetts and Vermont to 
Canada. Young Ruter joined himself to 
the elder and was closely associated for 
three months, receiving instruction in di- 
vinity. It was a period of brief but precious 
guidance. The Rev. John Broadhead was 
a man of strong character and tireless 
energy. He was powerful in prayer and 
exhortation, full of faith and of the Holy 
Ghost. He possessed sound judgment, was 
fearless in the face of opposition, and a 
minister eminently suited to his times. His 



14 



Martin Ruter 



counsels and affectionate regard through 
the years bore rich fruitage in the life and 
services of this son of the gospel. After 
receiving license to preach, Martin during 
the winter and spring of 1801 was assigned 
to travel with the Rev. John Nichols on 
the Wethersfield Circuit, Vermont. It was 
a year of great refreshing in Eastern Meth- 
odism. Jesse Lee, in his Short History of 
Methodists, writing of the New London 
District, says, "There was a greater work 
of the Lord in the conversion of souls in 
that part of New England than had ever 
been known among the Methodists in those 
parts of the country/' New Hampshire 
doubled its membership in 1800 and Ver- 
mont increased fifty per cent. 

The chief work of the young licentiate 
was at the town of Athens. Asa Kent has 
given a piquant account of the first Meth- 
odist preaching here the previous year: 

"There were no regular religious meet- 
ings in the place, though the Congregation- 
alists had a small church and were in want 
of a minister. A local preacher by the name 
of Ashur Smith learning there was no 
clergyman in Athens, called on Deacon 
Rawson and professed to be a preacher of 
the gospel. The deacon, considering this 
providential, asked him to fill the pulpit, 



The Youthful Itinerant 15 



and he gave such satisfaction that he was 
engaged for a year. But before the time 
expired it was cautiously whispered around 
that Smith was a Methodist. This passed 
with some as a downright slander, but, the 
reports continuing, an interview took place 
with the deacon, as follows: 

" 'It is told, Mr. Smith, that you're a 
Methodist !' 

" 'Well, sir, it is true/ 

" 'Why did you not tell us, at first, what 
church you belonged to?' 

" 'Because you never asked me a word 
about it/ 

" 'But you have deceived us/ 

" 'You know, Deacon, that when I came 
among you I professed to be a minister of 
the gospel of Christ ; as such I have labored 
among you; and now permit me to ask if 
you, and the church, have not been satisfied 
with the doctrine you have heard/ 

" 'I have heard no complaint about that ; 
but the Methodists hold to dreadful errors !' 

" 'Believe me, sir, I have preached to you 
every point of doctrine which the Methodists 
believe necessary to salvation. My object 
has been to benefit the people, and not to 
make a party. I did not think it proper to 
bring in those points of doctrine which are 
in no way necessary to our salvation, but 



16 



Martin Ruter 



which might lead to unprofitable disputa- 
tions.' 

"But there was no small stir among the 
people. The old men, who were rigid Cal- 
vinists, were exceedingly mortified on find- 
ing that they had been hearing with satis- 
faction and extolling a Methodist preacher 
for twelve months." 

It was to the scene of Mr. Smith's labors 
that young Martin was sent. His preaching 
in Athens had a great effect, and a sweeping 
revival began. This lasted through the 
latter part of the winter into the spring, 
and the Rev. John Broadhead, as presiding 
elder of the district, came for the ingather- 
ing of the fruits. His report is published 
in Stevens' Memorials, thus: "Nothing re- 
markable happened till we came to the little 
town of Athens. Here I preached on Tues- 
day to a large congregation in the open air ; 
they heard me with great attention. There 
had been no society formed by Brother 
Ruter; it was proposed for me to preach 
again the next day, read the rules, and form 
a class. We had a most melting time ; the 
power of the Lord was present to heal, and 
eighty -three came forward and joined the 
society. Their eagerness to join alarmed 
me before they had all united. I was afraid 
they had not considered sufficiently what 



The Youthful Itinerant 17 



they were doing. I rose up and poured in 
upon them a very warm exhortation, and 
told them we wanted none but such as were 
determined to save their souls, and would 
evidence it by walking according to the 
rules of Methodism. As soon as I ended, 
they came forward again with streaming 
eyes and desired to join, till we made up 
the number of eighty-three." This refresh- 
ing on the Wethersfield Circuit resulted 
in its expansion from a two to a four weeks' 
round. It was indeed a brilliant beginning 
for our young itinerant in this first brief 
appointment. 

The New York Conference held its 
annual session June I, 1801, in the historic 
old John Street Church. Thither our 
young preacher journeyed to be admitted 
on trial in a class of which Elijah Hedding 
was a member. Ruter was then but six- 
teen years of age and holds the Methodist 
record for early acceptance into the ranks 
of the ministry, barring the exception of 
George Gary, who was admitted into the 
New England Conference in 1809 at the 
age of fifteen years and six months. The 
Rev. Billy Hibbard, in his Memoirs, speaks 
of this New York session as follows: "It 
was a good Conference; much love and 
good will were manifest in the preachers. 



18 



Martin Ruter 



Holiness was still our aim. This doctrine 
was in our view of the highest importance 
to the Christian world, and the grand mark 
of our high calling. Perfect repentance, 
perfect faith, perfect love were all implied 
in the grand doctrine of holiness; and 
everyone seemed to pant after it, as the 
hart panteth for the cooling water brook. 
When I went from Conference I was re- 
freshed as with new wine, and as a giant 
I felt strong to renew the war against the 
devil and sin." 

In 1801 Martin Ruter was stationed on the 
Chesterfield Circuit, New Hampshire, with 
Abner Wood; in 1802 on the Landaff Cir- 
cuit, New Hampshire, with Phinehas Peck, 
and in 1803 at Adams Circuit, Massachu- 
setts. His ministry met with unbroken 
success. 

Laban Clark relates an experience at 
Lansingburg, where the notice was given 
that a youth less than eighteen years of 
age was to preach. So much attention was 
attracted that Dr. Blatchford's academy 
had to be secured for the meeting. "Many 
went with the expectation of hearing some 
puerile performance; but, to their surprise, 
they found themselves listening to an able 
and eloquent preacher. At the close of the 
service some of the leading men urged him 



The Youthful Itinerant 19 



to preach again the next evening, which he 
did in the Presbyterian church, to the pro- 
found attention and undiminished delight 
of a highly respectable audience." 

As a youth yet in his teens his influence 
was potent with those of his own age. 
Scores of them united with the church and 
not a few were led into the Christian min- 
istry. The violent opposition that befell 
many itinerants in New England was not 
the experience of Ruter. His amiable dis- 
position secured for him the esteem of all 
who knew him. But the growth of the 
denomination was made often at the cost of 
severe persecution. Its ministers were de- 
nounced from the pulpits, wronged in the 
courts, hooted in the streets, and maimed 
in vicious personal assaults. Yet amid it 
all the work went steadily forward. The 
animating spirit was that of the greatest 
leader of them all, Francis Asbury, the 
spirit of ceaseless activity. After a fatigu- 
ing week of an Annual Conference in New 
York, he records in his Journal: "So we 
closed our labors in the city. But instead 
of a page it would require a volume to tell 
the restless tossings I have had — the diffi- 
culties and anxieties I have felt about 
preachers and people here and elsewhere, — 
alternate joy and sorrow. But I have been 



20 



Martin Ruter 



supported. I am done; I am gone. New 
York, once more, farewell !" 

Canada appealed to the Methodist pioneer 
as foreign missionary territory at the open- 
ing of the nineteenth century, and volun- 
teers were as eager to invade the North with 
a message of a free salvation, as in more 
recent years the French inhabitants of the 
Saint Lawrence have been urged by 
economic motives to swarm into the New 
England regions. Calvin Wooster, Nathan 
Bangs, and Lorenzo Dow rendered valiant 
service in Upper Canada about Lake On- 
tario, but the mixed population of French 
Catholic, Anglican and Scotch in Lower 
Canada were not friendly to the system of 
Wesley. Martin Ruter at the Conference 
of 1804 received the appointment to Mon- 
treal. Not yet having attained his majority, 
the sojourn in this complex and totally 
different civilization was destined to affect 
deeply the purpose and personal attainments 
of the ambitious young man and shape his 
future career. The scanty number of com- 
municants for the year was reported as 
twelve. 

In 1805, admitted to deacon's orders by 
Francis Asbury, Ruter became a member of 
the New England Conference, since the 
General Conference of 1804 had separated 



The Youthful Itinerant 21 



the New London and Vermont Districts 
from the enlarging New York body. Now 
just passed his twentieth year, he holds in 
succession the pastorates at Bridgewater 
Circuit, New Hampshire ; Northfield, Ports- 
mouth, and Boston. Dan Young in his 
Autobiography gives this estimate of these 
years : "His ministry continued to meet the 
high expectations his early efforts at six- 
teen aroused. He was pious, reserved, 
dignified, learned and eloquent." Of him- 
self Ruter thus modestly speaks: "How 
wonderful is the providence of God, and 
how great are his mercies ! From the 
bosom of obscurity, in which I drew my 
first breath, how wonderfully have I been 
led, step by step, into the place I am per- 
mitted to hold as a member and as a minis- 
ter in the Church. Nothing of this is due to 
myself: I have been a most unfaithful and 
unprofitable servant. By the grace of God 
I am what I am ; and O that my whole life 
in future may be devoted to his service!" 

Within five years in the New England 
Conference he became the presiding elder 
of the New Hampshire District, being asso- 
ciated officially with such noted men in 
Methodism as Joshua Soule, Elijah Hed- 
ding, George Pickering, Thomas Branch, 
and Oliver Deale. The Rev. John Broad- 



22 



Martin Ruter 



head had kept the young man under his 
kindly eye, taking him to the Boston Dis- 
trict when serving it as elder. In fact, 
Ruter was in high favor with all his col- 
leagues. In the session of 1806 he presented 
the message from Bishop Coke; at that of 
1808 he drafted the address to the brethren, 
requesting their charity for the distressed 
traveling preachers. Again, at the request 
of the bishop, he, rather than the secretary, 
read the appointments of the ministers for 
the ensuing year of 1809. 

The exercises of an Annual Conference 
were simple and direct ; there were none of 
the numerous anniversary occasions that 
mark the sitting of a modern ecclesiastical 
body. There were ordinations to . the 
various ministerial offices and examinations 
of character. The passing upon each man 
in the regular connection was a rigorous 
and thorough proceeding. William Good- 
hue, who had married a young woman of 
fifteen without religion, was called to ac- 
count by his elder. The mind of the Con- 
ference about the bridegroom was recorded 
in three votes: First, his marriage was im- 
properly contracted; second, he was sus- 
pended one year from performing the 
function of a deacon; then — straining the 
quality of mercy — third, his name was 



The Youthful Itinerant 23 



printed among those admitted to full con- 
nection. Great frankness was exercised in 
the estimate of character and much caution 
in the admission of candidates to the min- 
istry. The minutes contain such records 
as these: "Too much disposed to preach 
about the millennium"; "Zealous, but eccen- 
tric"; "Stable amid storms, but rather 
favoring needless ornaments" ; "Married 
prematurely"; "Of small abilities, but 
pious." "Joel Winch is useful and well- 
meaning, but obstinate and contentious." 
Benjamin Bishop, located, had made im- 
provement and was readmitted. 

Usually the business transacted at a Con- 
ference was not extensive. After the re- 
ports the time would be given to revival 
efforts. In the session of 1807 the minutes 
note that "after a conversation on the state 
of the Lord's work among the people under 
our charge, the close of the session was 
given to relating former experiences." The 
pecuniary rewards of these men were 
meager indeed. Up to 1800 the allowance 
to an itinerant was $64 a year and his 
traveling expenses. Then until the Gen- 
eral Conference of 1816 the amount was 
$80 a year, when it was raised to $100. A 
like sum in each period was apportioned 
to the wife or widow, and for each child 



24 



Martin Ruter 



under seven years, an allowance of $16, 
and to each one over seven and under four- 
teen $24 a year. Nor was this standard 
invariably met. Billy Hibbard, on a Massa- 
chusetts circuit, received $5.84 as his quar- 
terly payment in addition to traveling ex- 
penses. He had to keep a family fifty miles 
distant from his work. Twenty-six services 
a month were considered light labor by him ; 
his only complaint was made when he had 
twelve appointments in one week and no 
chance to get home to see his wife and 
children. Founded on the fidelity and sacri- 
fice of such servants of God, the Church 
of Wesley constantly enlarged its useful- 
ness and influence in the East. 

An especial distinction came to Martin 
Ruter in 1808, when he was elected one of 
the seven delegates from the Annual Con- 
ference to the General Conference in Balti- 
more of the seven territorial groups then in 
existence. The Eastern group had joined 
with the New York body in urging a repre- 
sentative quadrennial assembly for Meth- 
odism. Such a plan did not go into opera- 
tion until 1 812, but in the spirit of it Ruter 
was the choice of his brethren at this earlier 
date. The young man of twenty-three sat 
on the important Committee of Review and 
Inspection, as the representative of his sec- 



The Youthful Itinerant 25 



tion, along with Jesse Lee, William Mc- 
Kendree, Thomas Ware, and others. The 
growing publishing interests of the Church 
came under its consideration, and Ruter 
was largely instrumental in having the Con- 
ference vote an extra compensation of 
$1,000 as a fitting recognition of the services 
of Ezekiel Cooper, the agent of the Book 
Concern, who had increased its capital 
eleven fold in nine years — to nearly $50,000. 
The committee tried to have the rule passed 
that no pamphlets or hymns should be pub- 
lished independently by a preacher but that 
they must come through the general Book 
Concern. This was modified to require only 
the approbation of the Annual Conference 
of the publisher. 

In 1810 Martin Ruter was returned for 
his second year as elder. A personal letter 
after the Conference from Francis Asbury 
indicates the esteem and confidence of the 
Bishop : 

Baltimore, Md., March 11, 1810. 
My Dear Son: 

God be gracious to thee and glorious in the 
uncoverings of the arm of his power among the 
people. In all our thinkings and fearings we 
are comforted in the work of God, that we are 
assured is not in vain in the Lord. Good news 
from New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and the 
Old State. Increase about 7,000 in three Con- 



26 



Martin Ruter 



ferences. This will certainly be the greatest 
year we have ever known in America, west and 
south. We go before the wind; in the center 
we are a little on the lee; we are a little be- 
calmed. We are throwing out the oars, calling 
in ordinary and extraordinary means, fasting, 
reforming, dressing our vineyards. Surely, you 
will not faint now when victory is declared on 
our side. It is my wish that Bishop McKendree 
and myself after the Conference should go to 
Boston. Then I take the shore to Newport, New 
London, and Genesee. The Bishop takes Maine, 
New Hampshire, Vermont, so on to the Genesee 
Conference. But we have not had time to de- 
liberate or hardly to speak to each other. I have 
given him the chair of every Conference. It is 
time in the thirty-nine years of my labors to 
wind up. I have retired with great pleasure with 
a valedictory speech, yet I am willing to do all 
I can to spread abroad the salt of the earth. 

F. Asbury. 

Portland, Maine, was the scene of pas- 
toral labors for 1811. Then for two years 
the itinerant took a location, living in 
North Yarmouth and preaching occasion- 
ally there and in its vicinity. In early 
Methodism it was not infrequent for the 
ministers to stop temporarily from active 
work. But Ruter in 18 14 was readmitted 
and officially stationed at North Yarmouth. 
The Conference of 1815 chose him as its 
secretary, a position which he filled several 
times, and where he made a record for 



The Youthful Itinerant 27 



efficiency that was long cherished. The 
election for the next General Conference 
at this time was ordered to be by choice 
rather than by seniority. On the first ballot 
Ruter received fifty-seven of the sixty-three 
votes cast, standing second in the delega- 
tion of twelve, ahead of both Hedding and 
Soule. In the year 1815 he was stationed 
at Salisbury, Massachusetts. 

In all this period as an itinerant in New 
England, the chief concern of Martin Ruter 
was to win souls. The early devotion to 
his Master was maintained with consistent 
fidelity as maturer manhood drew nigh. 
His power with men was a natural conse- 
quence of his close walk with God. The 
dominant trait of his character was to shun 
even the appearance of evil. Bishop Hed- 
ding could bear the sweeping testimony 
that in all the years of intimate association 
he never knew nor heard of his being guilty 
of a mean action or an imprudent deed. 
To be employed in the work of the Lord 
was the holy ambition of his life. 



CHAPTER II 



THE SELF-TAUGHT SCHOLAR 

The pioneer preachers of Methodism 
have been designated as men without 
learned qualifications, but the defense 
seems ample that they constituted a select 
chivalry of the modern church for a 
peculiar age. Although the sect took its 
rise in the famous University of Oxford in 
the person of a Fellow of Lincoln College, 
while Thomas Coke, of Jesus College, Ox- 
ford, became the first bishop to America, 
while the cultured Fletcher of Madeley 
was named by Voltaire as the most ideal 
character in Europe, the ministry on this 
side of the Atlantic was a unique and dif- 
ferent class. The itinerant had his training 
in the school of practical affairs. He became 
a matriculate in the university of personal 
relations rather than in that of books and 
lecture room. He possessed a singular 
knowledge of human nature, and his broad 
sympathies made him peculiarly adaptable 
to many forms of society. The Wesleyan 
in America displayed shrewd powers of 
argumentation, kept keenly in touch with 
28 



The Self-Taught Scholar 29 

the movements of the time and was given 
to sturdy self-discipline. 

Martin Ruter, in addition to his record 
as a youthful itinerant and successful 
evangelist, was reputed to be the best edu- 
cated man of his day in Methodism. This 
distinction is the more commendable from 
the fact that this erudition was the product 
of his own persistent, private study. As a 
lad he went over the Vermont hills to learn 
his letters; later, for a few months, in his 
fifteenth year, he studied in Bradford. In 
his autobiography he records: "I had a 
taste for learning and a thirst for knowl- 
edge from my earliest recollections. This 
taste I cherished by improving diligently 
such opportunities as I had of private 
studies at home, and in attending the schools 
in the neighborhood where I lived. My 
father being poor was unable to give me 
either a liberal education or those academic 
advantages which I earnestly desired to 
obtain. The deficiencies of my education 
I endeavored to supply as far as I was able 
by my own industry; and in these efforts, 
continued through a course of many years' 
study, I have not been altogether unsuc- 
cessful/' 

The course of self-instruction now 
mapped out by him Ruter had to pursue 



30 



Martin Ruter 



in the midst of a busy itinerant's career. 
Many of his studies were mastered on 
horseback or by the light of the cabin fire. 
The difficulties were vast, the circuits large, 
and the stations hard. The Bridgewater 
Circuit, supplied by him in 1805, required 
one hundred miles' travel each week, preach- 
ing twice a day and regular appointments 
at thirteen towns. Under such disadvan- 
tageous circumstances did he follow that 
extensive course of reading and study which 
was never abandoned even amid the labor- 
ious service of maturer years. He was 
uniformly an early riser and thus com- 
manded the refreshing hours of the morn- 
ing for study and meditation. But though 
an early riser, he retired late, often accom- 
plishing after supper and before he retired 
to rest what with many others would have 
been the work of a day. Besides this self- 
denial in the matter of sleep he was also 
very systematic in the distribution of his 
time. His well-known rule was never to 
be unemployed, never to be triflingly em- 
ployed, neither spend more time at one 
place than is strictly necessary. 

Martin Ruter's philosophy of intellectual 
attainment was aptly expressed in his first 
baccalaureate address at Allegheny College : 
"No one was ever born a scholar ; nor is it 



The Self-Taught Scholar 31 

possible to become one without mental dis- 
cipline. By the aid of it, some of the most 
discouraging obstacles have been overcome. 
Those who have astonished mankind by their 
great powers have accomplished their work 
not so much by a superiority of natural 
talents as by their patient attention and 
persevering industry. It is necessary that 
in addition to being persevering in one's 
studies there be pursued a habit of regular 
thinking, a certain discipline of thought, 
and an ability to concentrate on the sub- 
jects under investigation." 

The range of the studies of Ruter was 
broad. Probably he was most highly accom- 
plished as a linguist. He was versed also 
in both pure and mixed mathematics. He 
was able to teach algebra and geometry; 
in science astronomy was his familiar study 
and was taught by him in college. Our 
scholar applied himself with great diligence 
to the common branches, such as reading, 
writing, grammar, and geography. He felt 
keenly the importance of their accurate and 
practical use because of his ministry to so 
many who were ignorant and lowly. He 
cultivated the English language with much 
care. Early in life he had acquired a style 
of pure, classical English ; his conversation 
was correct and chaste, free from bombast 



32 



Martin Ruter 



or barbarism. One of his publications was 
a Collection of Miscellaneous Pieces, made 
up of selections from the best English 
authors chosen with a view to intellectual 
and moral improvement. 

The residence of Martin Ruter in Canada 
at the time of the first flush of his ambition 
for learning gave him two exceptional op- 
portunities. He became the pupil of a 
learned rabbi in Montreal and laid the foun- 
dation of his lifelong interest in Hebrew. 
When stationed in Philadelphia, in 1817, 
he continued his studies in Hebrew with 
Dr. Charles Wilson, the leading Presby- 
terian pastor of the city. Ruter had a 
genuine passion for the tongue of the 
chosen people, feeling that by its venerable 
authority it stood at the head of all other 
languages. Our scholar possessed a peculiar 
sense of obligation to his church and his 
age in the use of his attainments. It was 
his regret that the Hebrew language, so 
important to the Christian minister, and so 
sacred by divine authority, should have 
been so little studied. 

Accordingly, he prepared a Hebrew 
Grammar in 1826 at Cincinnati, designating 
it as an easy entrance to the language, com- 
piled for the use and encouragement of 
learners, and adapted to such as have not 



The Self-Taught Scholar 33 

the aid of a teacher. He knew that many 
had been discouraged from the study be- 
cause of the perplexities arising from the 
vowel points in the Hebrew words. Be- 
sides the greater ease with which the 
language could be learned without the 
points, that designated the vowels, Ruter 
argued that no one need have any compunc- 
tion to employ this method, as the points 
were not found in the original sacred text, 
but had been added by the class of teachers, 
the Mazoretes, without divine authority and 
served only as a kind of gloss or comment 
upon the simple version. In his system 
anyone who understood English grammar, 
even if he did not know Greek or Latin, 
could readily become acquainted with the 
Hebrew. Under the inspiration of Ruter's 
leadership, many a minister gave himself 
to conscientious study. It came to be ac- 
cepted, that if the original Greek were 
necessary to give the finest, truest expres- 
sion of the New Testament, then only by 
the mastery of the Hebrew could the 
preacher adequately interpret the riches of 
the Old Testament. 

For one who was ambitious to explore 
Oriental literature Hebrew was pointed out 
as the key to the Chaldee, Syriac, and 
other Eastern tongues. And so it proved 



34 



Martin Ruter 



in the case of this self-taught scholar, for 
he knew his Chaldee and Syriac so thor- 
oughly, as well as having a partial acquaint- 
ance with other Shemitic branches, that as 
early as 1821, one year after opening the 
Western office of the Methodist Book Con- 
cern, he was offered a professorship of 
Oriental literature in the Cincinnati College. 

Ruter, while at Montreal, also utilized 
the favorable environment to begin the 
study of French, and he speedily learned 
to speak the language. He is said to have 
acquired an excellent accent, and became 
a fluent conversationalist. He maintained 
his reading of French literature through his 
lifetime, and while president of Augusta 
College he published a small treatise en- 
titled, A Conjugation of French Regular 
Verbs, for classes in Augusta College, 
which he used in his teaching. His plan 
of education included also a careful study 
of Greek and Latin. He taught these sub- 
jects under certain exigencies of his various 
college appointments and examined students 
as to their attainments in the classics. 

Naturally, the number and variety of the 
fields of knowledge into which he entered 
precluded him from a profound and critical 
scholarship. The utility of the particular 
subject and its adaptability for the present 



The Self-Taught Scholar 35 

circumstance were the impelling motives to 
his enlarging knowledge. His life was too 
busy, his change of scene too frequent, and 
his desire for immediate results too keen 
for Ruter to become a specialist in literature 
or in theology. 

An academic recognition of the scholar- 
ship of Martin Ruter came in the honorary 
degrees conferred upon him. In 1818 
Asbury College, at Baltimore, an institu- 
tion which for a single year tried to revive 
the lost Cokesbury, granted the Master of 
Arts degree to him. Soon after removing 
to the West, in 1822, Transylvania Uni- 
versity of Lexington, Kentucky, bestowed 
on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. 
This is believed to have been the first in- 
stance of such an honorary title accorded to 
a Methodist preacher. It speaks signifi- 
cantly of the high repute in which the man 
was held in his new home in the Ohio 
Valley. However, many of the brethren of 
his denomination were disposed to look 
askance at such an artificial distinction, 
possibly associating it with the wearing of 
jewels and costly raiment. Finally, in the 
General Conference of 1832, a number of 
memorials on the subject of preachers ac- 
cepting the title of Doctor of Divinity was 
submitted by the Philadelphia Conference. 



36 



Martin Ruter 



The petitions favored a rule to prevent 
any of the ministry from receiving a doc- 
torate from a literary institution. The 
number of Doctors of Divinity at that date 
in the church was very small. But the 
petition and the debate following the motion 
developed much difference of opinion. 
Some wanted a rule, if any at all were 
passed, to make every preacher who passed 
elders' orders a D.D., thus practically in- 
dorsing him as capable of teaching divinity, 
which the title on the face of it would seem 
to imply. At length the Rev. J. B. Finley 
said "he believed it to be a foolish waste of 
time to debate such a question ; the colleges 
would do as they pleased and would honor 
such ministers as they thought worthy of it, 
and the ministers would do as they pleased 
about accepting the honors. Whether the 
colleges recognized our ability to teach 
divinity or not, the world knew it. We 
have been doctoring the divinity of this 
country for half a century or more and 
have got it in a convalescent state, and if 
the people would let us alone we should 
cure it entirely." 

Finally, Dr. Martin Ruter as offering 
expert testimony in the case, got the floor 
and described how his title had come to 
him unsought. He was not aware that it 



The Self-Taught Scholar 37 

had made him any wiser or better, nor had 
it done him any harm. He did not know 
that he preached any better or any worse, 
nor did it confer on him any special gifts 
or talents. The degree had its influence 
with a certain class of the community and 
gave him an access that he could not other- 
wise have had. It served to shut the mouths 
of those who treated the Methodists, as a 
body, with contempt because they had no 
such honors. He felt it was a matter of 
taste with the colleges, the preachers, and 
the people, and no rule could be made to 
control it. Dr. Ruter moved the indefinite 
postponement of the whole subject, which 
was carried by a large majority. 

Martin Ruter entertained no conceit over 
his learning. There was nothing of the 
pedant about him, but in his distinctively 
intellectual relations there was the same 
modesty, graciousness, and sincerity that 
marked his social and religious conversa- 
tion and walk. Alfred Brunson, in his A 
Western Pioneer, relates this pertinent in- 
stance: "In our preachers' meetings at Dr. 
Ruter's, in Pittsburgh, when discussing a 
matter in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, I 
said that it occurred in a certain year. 'No,' 
said the Doctor, 'it was at such a time.' 
I was very certain that I was correct; but 



38 



Martin Ruter 



he gave a significant nod of the head, as 
much as to say, 'I am a D.D., and have 
been president of a college, and wrote the 
history of the event in question, and I know.' 
This ended the contest for the time. But 
at home I examined his Church History, 
and found it as I had said. At my next visit 
to his house I asked him if he had looked 
up the date. 'No/ he said, 'I am satisfied 
that I am right/ At this, I stepped up to 
his bookcase, and taking out his own edition 
of Gregory, I asked if he would admit that 
to be good authority. 'Yes, if you find it 
there, I will give it up.' I then opened at 
the page and showed it to him. 'Well/ 
said he, 'this is not the first time I have 
been mistaken.' There was so much humor 
and good sense in his reply that it took all 
the feathers out of my cap for the victory 
I had obtained." 

In the time that Martin Ruter was 
located at North Yarmouth, Maine, he came 
into controversy with the Rev. Francis 
Brown, who w 7 as serving the Congrega- 
tional church there. This pastor was a 
graduate of Dartmouth, much interested in 
education, and had a place of influence in 
Maine. He was called to be the president 
of his Alma Mater and held the office when 
the famous Dartmouth College Case was 



The Self-Taught Scholar 39 

argued in the supreme court by Daniel Web- 
ster. Ruter had published a pamphlet on 
the Life and Doctrine of the celebrated 
John Calvin. Brown took exceptions to 
this in a book entitled Calvin and Calvinism. 
Ruter rejoined in a letter and Brown came 
back in a reply. This was the height of 
the Hopkinsian movement in New England, 
and our self-taught scholar was looked upon 
by the Methodists as the one champion 
equipped to answer a college-bred man in 
a theological debate. As in such instances, 
the friends of each contestant claimed the 
victory for his denomination. 



CHAPTER III 



THE EDUCATIONAL PIONEER 

Engrossed in a mighty evangelism, dur- 
ing its initial decades in America, it is not 
strange that the charge was uttered by many 
critics and rivals, that the Methodists were 
hostile to the interests of education. A 
singular fatality had pursued the early 
efforts to conduct schools. The total loss 
by fire of Cokesbury College at Abingdon, 
Maryland, in 1795, after ten thousand 
pounds had been expended in ten years, 
led Bishop Asbury to record in his Journal 
his belief, that the Lord had not called them 
to build colleges. Yet schools were pro- 
jected in the districts, or embryonic Con- 
ferences, after the plan of the famed Kings- 
wood School of John Wesley in England. 
Bethel Academy in Kentucky, in 1791, and 
Uniontown Academy in Pennsylvania, in 
1792, came into existence for a few years, 
but the general scheme failed. The special 
training of the clergy received practically 
no attention until the General Conference 
of 1816 voted to prepare the first course of 
study for the traveling ministers. 

40 



The Educational Pioneer 41 

It is as an educator that Dr. Ruter com- 
mands paramount attention. The principal 
of Newmarket Academy, the first president 
of Augusta College, Kentucky, the presi- 
dent of .Allegheny College from 1833-37, 
and the projector of Rutersville College in 
Texas complete the record of his executive 
activities. The Academy at South New- 
market, New Hampshire, was the project 
of the New England Conference. The Rev. 
John Broadhead was the originator of the 
plan. His forceful leadership of the Meth- 
odist evangelism of the East has already 
been frequently cited in these pages. In 
other fields he showed the same intrepid 
mastery. He served four years in Congress ; 
he refused the nomination for governor of 
New Hampshire. He championed in the 
State Legislature the measure which al- 
lowed the Methodists the right to be a dis- 
tinct religious sect and have privileges. 
Later a bill was proposed that would repeal 
the law that a New Hampshire town could 
vote to settle a minister and then pay his 
salary out of the common taxes. Only 
three votes in the lower house favored the 
repeal, but the campaign continued until 
by 1819 it passed both houses. A citizen 
could leave a certificate with the clerk of 
the town that he was a member of another 



42 



Martin Ruter 



denomination and thus be freed from taxes 
to support a Congregational minister. But 
some of the ancient worthies felt that such 
action signified a repeal of the Christian 
religion, so deeply was the idea of exclu- 
sive privilege embedded in the ecclesiastical 
thinking. 

There were only eight thousand Meth- 
odists in New England in 1815, and few 
of these in the interior. Yet they did not 
want to send their children to institutions 
of the "standing order.'' Whereupon, in 
the house of Broadhead, in South New- 
market, the initial meeting was held and a 
canvass begun. The town was willing to 
aid and give the land if the preachers would 
guarantee instruction to be furnished five 
years. In the Bristol session of the Con- 
ference, in June, 18 16, the proposition made 
a sensation ; it seemed hasty and too big 
to handle. But the leaders of the Church 
favored it. The popular Joshua Soule was 
a predominant force for it. Martin Ruter, 
acknowledged then as the foremost scholar 
and the most eloquent preacher of the body, 
was a pronounced supporter. By the first 
committee, consisting of Martin Ruter, 
John Broadhead, and Caleb Dustin, a re- 
port favorable to the undertaking was sub- 
mitted, and a second committee presented 



The Educational Pioneer 43 



ways and means. Ruter, who was then 
serving as secretary of the Conference, 
exercised a guiding hand. The vote was 
strongly in the affirmative, and then the 
ministers proceeded to subscribe $260 of 
the $755 needed for the erection of a build- 
ing. Ruter headed the list with a gift of 
$80, Broadhead added $55, Pickering $35, 
and the others smaller sums. The town of 
South Newmarket aided in labor and 
material. 

By the annual session of 1817 a two- 
story wooden structure, thirty-two by 
twenty-four feet, had been completed — a 
building yet standing. The Conference 
now faced anew the magnitude of its task. 
After a serious and long debate it was 
voted to employ a teacher at $500 and 
guarantee the salary. Moses White, of the 
University of Vermont, who held a Bachelor 
of Arts degree, one of the few Methodist 
graduates of the times, was chosen in- 
structor. On September 1 the academy 
was opened with ten students, five of each 
sex — an early experiment in coeducation. 
The enrollment of the year reached twenty- 
seven. At the Conference of 1818 it was 
voted to incorporate the school. This same 
body elected the trustees, approved the 
rules, and controlled the funds. 



44 



Martin Ruter 



But the momentous legislation of this 
session of the New England clergy was the 
election of Martin Ruter as the first prin- 
cipal. The declared design was to 
strengthen the institution, and the new ex- 
ecutive was at once in himself a flaming 
advertisement. The attendance rose the 
first day to eighty, and his advent marked 
indeed a new era. A man so widely known 
as Ruter drew attention to the school and 
enlisted in its support those who had been 
hitherto indifferent. In the academy it 
awakened fresh enthusiasm and large ex- 
pectations, especially among those studying 
for the ministry. The example of a self- 
made man advancing to the front rank of 
pulpit orators and assuming the headship 
of his Church's educational interests, sug- 
gested large possibilities to those favored 
with better earlier advantages. 

Large plans were entertained, a library 
founded; $1,000 was given by Colonel 
Amos Binney, president of the Board of 
Trustees and collector of the Port of Bos- 
ton; a house was contributed by John 
Mudge, of Lynn. Many students made 
religious profession, and for a time mat- 
ters looked very hopeful. Since the studies 
of Principal Ruter in his self-education had 
been very broad, he came into control with 



The Educational Pioneer 45 



large ideas for the academy. The course of 
study was extensive and full. In addition 
to Latin, Greek, French, mathematics, and 
rhetoric, courses were offered in logic, 
philosophy, ecclesiastical history, divinity, 
Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac. He desired 
the early advancement of the institution 
into a college on the model of Cokesbury, 
and started a branch academy at Kingston. 

But, however potent a factor Martin 
Ruter proved in upbuilding the Newmarket 
plant, he was a costly piece of ornamenta- 
tion. If the number of students grew, the 
expenditures increased even more rapidly. 
Tuition receipts alone do not sustain. 
In 1819, at the close of his first year, the 
deficit was $356.95. An agent was sent 
abroad who secured $1,603. This tided the 
trustees through another year, but it was 
not enough to insure the continuance on 
this larger scale. At the General Conference 
of 1820 the Church at large called Martin 
Ruter to open the Western branch of the 
Book Concern. 

Upon his resignation at Newmarket, 
Moses White again took charge and re- 
mained until the academy closed in 1823. 
The financial support had dwindled; the 
site of the school had been badly chosen, 
the big academy at Exeter being only four 



46 



Martin Ruter 



miles away. Besides, there were few Meth- 
odists in this region on the seaboard. A 
new location was sought, and the New 
England Conference once more backed its 
educational aims, when Wilbraham, Massa- 
chusetts, became the seat of the Academy, 
which later was to pass on the succession to 
Wesleyan University at Middletown. In 
its brief existence, South Newmarket did 
great good, over four hundred students re- 
ceiving their training and inspiration in its 
halls. It supplied the first contingent of 
"educated men in Methodism who went 
forth as apostles in the new dispensation 
of popular education." 

The Methodist quadrennial gathering of 
1820 bore witness to the influence of the 
experiment at Newmarket, for a recom- 
mendation was made that the Annual Con- 
ferences begin similar foundations. The 
Ohio and Kentucky Conferences, formed 
in 1820 from the Western Conference, 
promptly took the matter under advisement 
and began to look for a site. Martin Ruter, 
then living in Cincinnati, was put on the 
committee with John Collins at the Ohio 
session of September 21, 1821, to confer 
with the Kentucky representatives. The 
eligible place was Augusta, Bracken County, 
on the Ohio River, forty-five miles north 



The Educational Pioneer 47 



of Cincinnati, where the Bracken Academy 
had been incorporated by the Kentucky 
Legislature in 1798 with a gift of six thou- 
sand acres of land. The property had been 
prudently managed and largely converted, 
so that the trustees of the Academy held a 
fund of $10,000 now available, although the 
school was practically a failure. A leading 
spirit of the local body was a Methodist, 
Captain James Armstrong. 

The commissioners met in Augusta, 
December 15, 1821, and came to satisfac- 
tory terms for an institution of greatly 
enlarged educational outlook. Then the 
Bracken Academy trustees, together with 
Martin Ruter and his three associates of 
Ohio and Kentucky, applied to the Legis- 
lature for a charter, and on December 7, 
1822, Kentucky authorized Augusta Col- 
lege. The statute of the State provided 
that the college should be founded and 
maintained forever upon the most liberal 
plan for the benefit of the youth of every 
class of citizens and every religious denom- 
ination, who should be freely admitted to 
equal privileges and advantages of educa- 
tion under the direction of twenty-three 
trustees. 

The action of the General Assembly was 
based upon the following considerations: 



48 



Martin Ruter 



Whereas, The Methodist Episcopal Church 
in the States of Kentucky and Ohio have de- 
termined on establishing an extensive seminary 
of learning in the Western country, to the sup- 
port of which they are pledged to use their 
utmost and undivided efforts, and from which 
no student is to be excluded in consequence of 
his religious opinions or the religious opinions 
of his parents, relations, or guardians; and that 
the same seminary of learning shall be con- 
ducted upon free, liberal and enlightened prin- 
ciples; and, 

Whereas, The establishment of an institution 
of this kind within the State of Kentucky, if 
conducted on principles such as are here laid 
down, will be of great advantage to the citizens 
of said State, by disseminating knowledge and 
useful literature and by introducing into our 
State students from Ohio and other States, 
thereby increasing our pecuniary advantages and 
intercourse with our sister States. 

Bracken Academy named three of the 
trustees and turned over the proceeds of 
the $10,000 on the condition that it support 
instruction in Latin, Greek, and English 
branches. Captain Armstrong and the 
local friends, assisted by the Rev. Jonathan 
Stamper as agent of the Kentucky Confer- 
ence, assumed the erection of a college 
building. This excellent structure of brick, 
forty-two by eighty-two feet, three stories 
in height, was completed by October of the 
next year. John P. Finley, a brother of 



The Educational Pioneer 49 



James P. Finley of the Ohio Conference, 
conducted an academic department for two 
years, when he died. Also the large bene- 
factor, Captain Armstrong, passed away at 
this period of the infancy of the institution. 

In 1825 John P. Durbin, later to be the 
editor of the New York Advocate and 
president of Dickinson College, was elected 
professor of ancient languages. When a 
young preacher in the Ohio Conference in 
1 82 1 Durbin had been encouraged by Mar- 
tin Ruter to commence the study of the 
Latin grammar and language, later finish- 
ing his course at Miami University. The 
duties of Durbin in the earlier years at 
Augusta consisted largely in soliciting 
funds. Also, in 1825, to the chair of mathe- 
matics and natural philosophy was ap- 
pointed a new graduate, a Bachelor of Arts 
from Transylvania University, John P. 
Tomlinson, who was to serve Augusta Col- 
lege nearly a quarter of a century, being 
its president from 1836 until 1849. The 
institution was yet without a head, but 
gradually and surely it was being equipped 
to give thorough collegiate instruction. 

There had been some doubt as to the 
extent of the powers granted in the charter 
of 1822, so that a supplementary act was 
passed by the Legislature on January 12, 



50 



Martin Ruter 



1827. It decreed that the trustees of 
Augusta College, together with the presi- 
dent and a majority of the professors, 
should have the power to confer the de- 
grees of Bachelor or Master of Arts upon 
students completing prescribed courses, and 
also any honorary degrees to others, on 
account of special merit, in as full and 
ample a manner as in any similar insti- 
tution. 

Besides, there was added at this time to 
the Act of Incorporation the following 
unique source of financial support and 
absolute monopoly of transportation: John 
Schoolfield, who for twenty years had 
operated a ferry over the Ohio, sold his 
right to the trustees. Augusta College, 
accordingly, secured the exclusive privilege 
in perpetuity to operate the ferry across the 
river from the south for a mile and a half 
above and below the town, giving bond of 
$1,000 for faithful service. The net pro- 
ceeds accruing from a table of fares pre- 
scribed by the Act, "of twelve and one half 
cents for every man, woman, child, horse, 
mule, jack, or jenny/' was to be applied to 
the support of the professors in the literary 
departments. 

Matters were now in readiness for the 
choice of an executive of the college, and 



The Educational Pioneer 51 



all the signs pointed to one man as qualified 
for the first presidency of Augusta. That 
man was Martin Ruter, D.D., now ending 
his second quadrennium as the Western 
agent of the Book Concern. His personal 
inclination was to go into the active minis- 
try at the close of his term in 1828, but at 
the earnest solicitations of Bishops Hedding 
and George he accepted an election in 1827. 
He did not actively enter upon his duties, 
however, until the General Conference of 
1828 elected his successor. His title was 
President and Professor of Oriental 
Languages and Belle Lettres. F. A. Davis, 
M.D., became professor of chemistry and 
botany, and the faculty was now complete. 

Augusta had been rounded into a strong 
institution, capable of doing high-grade 
work, with courses of instruction equal to 
those of any college in the land. It was 
the only chartered Methodist school of 
higher learning in the world. Its first class 
was graduated in August, 1829, Nicholas 
B. T. Marshall, Henry Rucker, Alexander 
A. Spencer, and Pascal F. Wright. One 
hundred years after Charles Wesley had 
started the Holy Club at the University of 
Oxford, this group of four in America went 
forth as the leaders of the great procession, 
ever enlarging, of Methodist graduates. 



52 



Martin Ruter 



In his autobiography Dr. Ruter records: 
"The only objection to accepting the ap- 
pointment to Augusta College was that it 
would call my attention in some degree 
from the more immediate labors of the min- 
istry, and might lessen my own progress 
in Christian experience. But I had seen, 
when in charge of the Newmarket Academy, 
and long before I went there, that the 
Church needed seminaries of learning and 
could not conduct its important interests 
without them. I saw that these seminaries, 
unless carefully managed, would not ac- 
complish the purpose intended. I therefore 
accepted the appointment, determining to 
spend a few years, not many, in seeing 
what might be accomplished in this way 
for the prosperity of our Zion." His hopes 
for the College were high, and he labored 
ably to advance all its varied interests. 

In a letter to Zion's Herald of July 13, 
1827, he declared there was no doubt of 
Augusta's ultimate success, but there was 
immediate, urgent need for a library and 
for philosophical and chemical apparatus. 
Professor Durbin made visits to New York, 
Philadelphia, and Baltimore in behalf of 
the institution. The report made of his 
tour in 1829 showed $1,500 had been col- 
lected, of which a portion was used for 



The Educational Pioneer 53 

equipment, but more than half of the amount 
went to his salary and expenses. There 
were valuable gifts also of books and a 
mineral cabinet. The number of students 
in Ruter's first year was eighty-two. There 
came no less than thirty from Louisiana 
and Mississippi, traveling one thousand 
miles to reach the village. In 1829 the 
attendance rose to one hundred and thirty 
in the two departments, one hundred of 
college rank. The teaching staff consisted 
of seven professors and instructors. Dr. 
Ruter organized an educational society at 
the college site, which accumulated a fund 
for the aid of worthy students. 

The evangelistic note was dominant in 
the school from the beginning. In Zion's 
Herald of March 5, 1828, the President 
spoke of the religious prospects as very 
animated, inasmuch as sixty persons had 
united with the church. All commented on 
the soundness of the conversions of the 
young people. The policy of Augusta was 
thus expressed by Professor Durbin: "We 
believe that this college should be made the 
nursery not only of learning, but also of 
morals and religion. We rejoice that in 
this one regular college in the West the 
youth can be educated and their principles 
not corrupted. Yet we do not teach them 



54 



Martin Ruter 



religion otherwise than as we teach other 
subjects, endeavoring to walk uprightly 
before them* clearly convinced that our 
youth shall not be taught by any man, 
unless he is decidedly pious." This zeal 
of the authorities at Augusta is deeply sig- 
nificant in the light of the contemporary 
report in The Quarterly Register of the 
American Educational Society, that only 
one third of the students in New England 
colleges were professing Christians, while 
the proportion in other sections scarcely 
reached a fifth. 

The Board of Trustees had the power 
to fill vacancies in their number, and the 
influence of Dr. Ruter was used to select 
influential men of affairs. John McLean, 
justice of the Supreme Court, became a 
trustee and had the address in 183 1 before 
the Union and the Jefferson Literary So- 
cieties of the college. The success of 
Augusta was such that the Legislature 
spoke of it officially as one of the most 
prosperous institutions of the common- 
wealth. The standards of scholarship were 
well maintained, though within a few years 
something of a novelty was introduced — a 
sort of early elective system. This pro- 
vided that without taking a regular course 
students might study what they or their 



The Educational Pioneer 55 

parents desired and nothing more. "They 
need not embarrass themselves with studies 
in which they are not interested and which 
are unconnected with their destination in 
life." 

In 1 83 1 John P. Durbin was called to 
his Eastern field and the Rev. H. B. 
Bascom, one time chaplain of Congress and 
president of Madison College, the insti- 
tution of the Pittsburgh Conference, from 
1827 until 1829, entered the faculty. John 
A. Roche, the biographer of Durbin, 
speaking of these two men, together with 
Dr. Ruter and Professor Tomlinson, com- 
ments: "Who that reads these names and 
knew these ministers can fail to wonder at 
the early power of Methodism to raise up 
men for its necessities ? It was a marvelous 
combination of mental and moral forces. 
It showed astonishing ability of adaptation 
to the Church's demands. It is difficult to 
think of these four men in one college, and 
that our first." 

Notwithstanding all the planning, the 
prayer, and the high purpose for Augusta 
College, there were dark days ahead. The 
citizens of Bracken County worked vigor- 
ously in 1830 to have the Legislature 
revoke the $10,000 fund of Bracken Acad- 
emy and distribute it to the common 



56 



Martin Ruter 



schools, but the State kept faith with the 
college trustees. The tuition rates were 
low — fifteen dollars a year for the college 
and twelve for the academy. Even with 
the increased attendance the receipts did 
not pay the salaries of the professors, whose 
financial rewards were at best very small. 
Dr. Ruter felt keenly that an imperative 
obligation rested upon the Methodist Con- 
ferences. They had been allowed a liberal 
charter and the institution was entirely 
under their management. It was legally 
and morally binding upon them to ade- 
quately endow Augusta College. 

Yet it must be confessed that the Meth- 
odists generally were tardy in rallying 
solidly to the financial support of their 
educational enterprises. Whether it was 
the survival of that early, wide-spread dis- 
inclination to emphasize the importance of 
literary attainments, or because the great 
majority of the communicants were persons 
of small means, the fact remains that not a 
few men, gave their best talent and devo- 
tion to the schools of Methodism and re- 
ceived for many years a beggarly recom- 
pense. Nor were the institutions equipped 
in a manner suitable to the high service 
they were called to render. 

The Ohio and Kentucky Conferences 



The Educational Pioneer 57 



attempted nothing large and permanent for 
the support of Augusta before 1833. Then 
the body south of the Ohio raised quickly 
$10,000 to found the Roberts Professor- 
ship, and the body north of the Ohio gave 
a similar sum for the McKendree Profes- 
sorship. Before this time the current ex- 
penses had been met by various temporary 
expedients in money-raising. The students 
continued to come in encouraging numbers. 
In 1832 the senior class contained sixteen 
members, and the internal spirit of the 
school was excellent. 

Once again Dr. Ruter went as a delegate 
to General Conference, the session of May, 
1832, meeting in Philadelphia. Here the 
one constant impelling motive of his life 
reasserted itself. As he puts it: "I felt an 
earnest desire to be given up exclusively to 
the work of the ministry. No honors, no 
emoluments seemed of value, compared 
with the great duties of preaching the gos- 
pel of Christ and being actively engaged in 
pointing sinners to him. My purposed resig- 
nation as president of the college was in- 
fluenced by these views and some objects 
connected with the welfare of my family, 
but the leading reason was to devote my 
time wholly to the duties of the ministry." 
Returning to his Conference in Kentucky, 



58 



Martin Ruter 



he resigned as college executive. He took 
occasion to say at various times that he 
had the strongest confidence in the pros- 
perity of Augusta and no lack of faith in its 
ultimate success had induced him to leave. 

But the financial burden of the school 
had rested heavily upon the retiring presi- 
dent. He had gone to Augusta out of a 
deep sense of duty and expected to remain 
a limited period. His very departure acted 
to spur his brethren to bring to pass the 
definite endowment that had hitherto been 
unprovided. A generous estimate was ac- 
corded in Kentucky to the work of Dr. 
Ruter, as witnessed in the public prints: 
"He has served Augusta College with 
ability and industry in every way equal to 
the expectations of his fiends and the 
public. No man ever labored more inde- 
fatigably for the good of any similar enter- 
prise. His zealous efforts in public and in 
private have contributed largely to the 
present promise and prosperity of the 
institution." 

The supreme testimony to the executive 
worth of Dr. Ruter came after Augusta 
had obtained its permanent endowment and 
possessed a plant valued at nearly $50,000, 
when he was invited in 1836 to return and 
resume the presidency. The college suf- 



The Educational Pioneer 59 

fered in later years through the differences 
of the two supporting Conferences, the dis- 
cussion of the slavery question, and the 
rivalry with Transylvania University. 
Finally the State revoked its charter and 
forfeited a portion of its resources. But its 
influence through such sons as Judge 
Thomas A. Marshall, Hon. W. C. Groes- 
beck, and Bishop R. S. Foster, and a host 
of others, has been the rich heritage of the 
Ohio River region and the entire nation. 

The whole range of education found an 
ardent advocate in Dr. Ruter, nor were his 
interests confined to the particular institu- 
tions that he served. In the General Con- 
ference of 1824, he was the chairman of 
the Committee on Education. In addition 
to the action urging that each Annual Con- 
ference use its utmost exertion to establish 
a seminary of learning, the recommenda- 
tion of his report was approved, that every 
traveling preacher be enjoined to urge that 
suitable teachers be employed in the instruc- 
tion of the youth of the country and to use 
his influence to introduce teachers into the 
schools whose learning and piety were com- 
mendable. While at Cincinnati, feeling the 
need of suitable books for primary instruc- 
tion, Dr. Ruter prepared an arithmetic, a 
primer, and a spelling book. He was much 



60 



Martin Ruter 



concerned that the learning of children in 
the rudiments be accurate and thorough. 
He was particularly anxious to inculcate 
habits of correct pronunciation. His 
primary texts had a large sale in the schools 
of the day. 

As a clergyman, naturally, he placed very 
great stress upon religious education, and, 
in harmony with the policy of the Meth- 
odist Church, he became a warm supporter 
of the Sabbath school movement. Bishop 
Asbury had established the first Sabbath 
school of America in 1786 in Hanover 
County, Virginia. The official recognition 
of the importance of the work followed in 
the Conferences. But not until 1824 did a 
thorough program of action evolve. Then 
the duty was laid on each pastor to en- 
courage religious instruction, a catechism 
was to be compiled, and the book agents 
were to prepare literature suitable for the 
young. Martin Ruter, by his leadership in 
his Western city, brought the Christian 
denominations into an extensive campaign 
for the ingathering of the children. In 
1825, on the occasion of the great demon- 
stration at Lafayette's visit, he delivered an 
address to a thousand of Sabbath school 
scholars. 

In the General Conference of 1832 Dr. 



The Educational Pioneer 61 



Ruter again had a place on the Committee 
of Education, while in the gathering of 
1836 his chairmanship of the committee 
allowed him to formulate an educational 
confession of faith. His program of edu- 
cation was fourfold — domestic, moral, reli- 
gious, and literary. The home, the church, 
the public school, and the college were to 
be the agencies for its promotion. He 
averred that no religious society had done 
so much in the circulation of books or the 
extension of human knowledge as the Meth- 
odists. When they should have made a 
similar record in the schools in the matter 
of education in all branches, then the de- 
nomination would hold a position of far- 
reaching power. 



CHAPTER IV 



EDITOR AND AUTHOR 

American Methodism early utilized the 
agency of the press in its evangelistic work 
and in the promotion of Christian growth. 
No other denomination has made so bril- 
liant a record as it in the dissemination of 
religious literature. Its exemplar and com- 
mander was naturally John Wesley. He 
planned the Arminian Magazine, whose first 
number issued at the beginning of 1778 in 
London. On this side of the Atlantic the 
General Conference of 1796 ordered the 
publishing of a Methodist Magazine, to be 
modeled after Wesley's periodical. The 
publication appeared for two years, 1797-98, 
and then lapsed, largely because John 
Dickins, who had been the editor at Phila- 
delphia, fell a victim to yellow fever. 

The next periodical of Methodism was 
attempted by the New England Conference 
alone, which began in 18 15 the issuance of 
the New England Missionary Magazine at 
Concord, New Hampshire. The editor was 
Martin Ruter. The purpose was expressed 
in the preface, thus: "The use of maga- 
62 



THE 
NEW ENGLAND 

MISSIONARY MAGAZINE, 

FOR 

Promoting Useful Knowledge 

AND 

EVANGELICAL DOCTRINE. 



"And ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall 
make you free." John viii. 32. 



CONCORD: 
PRINTED BY ISAAC HILL 

1815 



64 



Martin Ruter 



zines for the purpose of diffusing divine 
knowledge and increasing the influence of 
the gospel is the most ready way for com- 
municating accounts of revivals of religion 
and of God's providential dealings toward 
his creatures. The publishers of this maga- 
zine, having for their object a more general 
spread of evangelical doctrine and wash- 
ing to make the work as useful as pos- 
sible, have judged it expedient to issue it 
in small numbers so as to render it par- 
ticularly advantageous to those who have 
but little time for reading." 

It was a modest little publication, 
duodecimo in size, containing thirty-six 
pages, which appeared every two months. 
Only four in all were issued. The term 
"missionary" in the title, it is to be ob- 
served, signified itinerant. The contents of 
each number, as selected by the editor, held 
to a carefully prescribed range of subjects. 
The first number started appropriately with 
a sketch of John Wesley as the first mis- 
sionary; later, the lives of John Fletcher 
and Dr. Coke are treated. Extracts were 
given from the sermons of Dr. Adam 
Clarke, Dr. Rush, Dr. Paley, and Dr. 
Benson. Accounts were printed of notable 
Christian experiences and religious revivals 
at Maiden, Sandwich, and other places. 



Editor and Author 65 



Each number contained one article of 
horrors and suffering — stories of the In- 
quisition, of persecutions, of pestilence and 
plague — a somber note, betraying the 
predilection of the editor who was later to 
republish Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Also, 
each number closed with selections of 
poetry from Cowper, Young, and anony- 
mous writers. 

Martin Ruter was most keen to resent 
reflections upon Methodism. He takes to 
task the hostile authorities who misquote 
statistics concerning his Church. The 
magazine has an element of the controver- 
sial and defends the Methodist doctrines 
against the prevalent Hopkinsian attacks 
of the time. The record of the Church for 
missionaries, or, rather, itinerants, was 
cited with much pride. Out of eighteen 
hundred admitted in forty years over seven 
hundred were then preaching from Maine 
to New Orleans. It was said "that the 
Congregationalists and other denominations 
have of late begun to imitate the Metho- 
dists ; once they were loaded with reproaches 
by the ministers and the people of other 
churches, because they traveled to preach 
the gospel; but now their very persecutors 
are using great exertions to be like them. 
It is hoped the time is fast approaching 



66 



Martin Ruter 



when the watchmen shall see eye to eye 
and with one accord lift up their voices to 
proclaim a full salvation." 

Though an official church periodical was 
tardy in being permanently established, the 
presses of the Book Concern continued to 
fulfill vigorously the function for which 
they were first set up in 1789. The secret 
of the success was the cooperation of all 
the ministers. Those who had desired to 
preach under the direction of Wesley in 
England had been pledged by him to the 
sale of his books and tracts. His injunction 
was, "See that every house is supplied with 
books." All the gains from sales went to 
the Church. The American itinerants 
were supplied with the literature essential 
to their evangelism. In the old-fashioned 
saddle-bags traveled a choice collection of 
the works of Wesley, Fletcher, Benson, 
Clarke, Watson, Bangs, and Lee, together 
with volumes of history, philosophy, and 
essays. At the end of the week-day ser- 
vices or in pastoral visits these were ex- 
hibited and sold. 

The business management of the Book 
Concern had its vicissitudes. After the 
large financial increase under Ezekiel 
Cooper, there were losses from excessive 
credits and unwise selections of titles to be 



Editor and Author 67 



issued. Under the list of the General 
Catalogue, the range was woefully narrow, 
and more liberal methods of deciding upon 
what to print had to be devised. When 
Joshua Soule took charge in New York, in 
1816, he brought the business back to its 
former high efficiency and restored the 
assets to the previous bounding figures in 
his four years' service. The expansion of 
Methodism in the West led to urgent calls 
for a branch of the Book Concern to be 
placed beyond the Alleghanies. The dif- 
ferences in the value of currency had be- 
come so demoralizing that thousands of 
dollars received from the Western sales 
had a greatly depreciated exchange value 
in New York, and had to be deposited in 
the Cincinnati banks. The only way to 
avoid large loss in this medium was to buy 
some raw product in the Ohio markets and 
ship it to the East. Moreover, the cost and 
trouble of transportation were very great. 
The books were taken by wagon over the 
mountains to Pittsburgh and thence shipped 
by the Ohio River. Cincinnati seemed to 
be the appropriate place for a depository, 
being a large center of trade and a strong- 
hold of the denomination. 

At the General Conference of 1820 
Martin Ruter became the chairman of the 



68 



Martin Ruter 



Book Committee. It formulated an aggres- 
sive policy for the publishing interests of 
the Church, looking to the purchasing of 
property in New York city and a better 
system of accounting by all the ministerial 
agents. When it was decided to grant the 
petition for a Western branch, Martin 
Ruter was easily the favorite candidate for 
the agency and was elected on the second 
ballot. The new establishment at once did 
an excellent business, yet it was a very 
unpretentious structure in which our scholar 
was housed. In a single room, at the cor- 
ner of Fifth and Elm, in a space of fifteen 
by twenty feet, he opened shop. This 
sufficed, however, at the start to hold the 
stock of Disciplines, Hymn Books, Confer- 
ence Journals, works of Coke, Fletcher, 
and Wesley and Asbury's Journal. Martin 
Ruter served in a multiplicity of capacities, 
as manager, buyer, shopkeeper, salesman, 
entry clerk, bookkeeper, packer, and ship- 
ping clerk. Under these various heads, he 
doubtless fully earned the salary of $800 
a year allotted, in addition to the traveling 
expenses to the West. The Ohio Confer- 
ence through a committee of three had 
supervision of the branch, examining the 
accounts yearly. 

James R. Finley, in his Sketches of 



Editor and Author 69 

Western Methodism, writes: "An indi- 
vidual passing along Elm Street in 1820 
would have seen a small office, over the 
door of which a small rude sign bore the 
inscription 'Methodist Book Room.' In 
that small room great things were done, 
like as in the log cabins of the fathers. 
Peering within one would see a plain but 
intelligent-looking man, behind the counter 
or bending over books, ready with kind 
words and an open heart. This man was 
Martin Ruter, the master spirit later of the 
Texas pioneers. This room was a sort of 
preachers' exchange. The books of the 
General Catalogue could be bought and sub- 
scriptions given for the Methodist peri- 
odicals." 

The receipts of the first year were 
$4,000; the average for the quadrennium 
was $6,280.22 annually. In the second 
term, from June 24, 1824, to July 14, 1828, 
the average ran to $7,381.66. In the eight 
years the total receipts of the Western ex- 
periment were $54,647.52. But the agent 
had been put under narrow restrictions. He 
was not allowed to print either books or 
papers. However, Martin Ruter was a man 
of initiative and courage. Because of the 
urgent demand, at his own risk he re- 
printed, in 1 82 1, Dr. Bangs's Vindication of 



70 



Martin Ruter 



Methodist Episcopacy and Sherlock's 
Treatise on Divine Providence. He also 
prepared, upon his own responsibility, a 
scriptural catechism and a primer. It is a 
satisfaction to know that these ventures 
resulted in no personal loss, and the profits 
of the Concern were enlarged. 

During his residence in Cincinnati Dr. 
Ruter contributed signally to the enlarging 
influence of his denomination in the city. 
A second church had been completed the 
year before his arrival. A third was added 
in the decade and the pulpit supply in- 
creased. Preparations were under way for 
the noted Wesley Chapel, which was long 
the cathedral of the Methodism of all that 
region and the place of the sessions of the 
General Conference of 1836. Dr. Ruter was 
in frequent demand as a preacher ; he often 
engaged in revival services and took a 
chief part in the promotion of the Sunday 
school work, to which his denomination was 
so thoroughly committed. He was ten- 
dered the position of Professor of Oriental 
Languages of the Cincinnati College in 
1 82 1, but declined the offer. Members of 
the faculties of Kentucky institutions bear 
testimony that Martin Ruter was generally 
looked upon as the leading man of Meth- 
odism in Cincinnati and the Ohio region. 



Editor and Author 71 



It was in 1822 that Transylvania Univer- 
sity, then at the height of its success under 
the presidency of Dr. Horace Holley, of 
Boston, conferred upon our Western agent 
the degree of Doctor of Divinity. 

This period of the life of Dr. Ruter, that 
of his forties, is the time of his largest 
literary activity. Several of his writings 
were not published and are yet preserved. 
Works that he had long planned were able 
to be brought out after he became the 
president of Augusta College. In 1830 he 
published The Martyrs, or a History of 
Persecution, a compilation from the works 
of Foxe and others. But the book of Dr. 
Ruter's that has had the widest circulation 
and the closest attention in Methodist cir- 
cles was The History of the Christian 
Church, finished at Augusta, September 15, 
1 83 1, and printed in Cincinnati in 1832. 
This work was based on the famous study 
of Dr. George Gregory (1754-1808), the 
English divine, but our college editor re- 
vised the original, particularly in the por- 
tions after the Reformation, and brought it 
up to date. The additions included a gen- 
eral view of missions, together with other 
benevolent institutions, and a discussion of 
the present state and prospects of the 
Christian world. A second edition of this 



72 Martin Ruter 

Church History was prepared at Pittsburgh 
in 1834. In the Conference Course of 
Study for all candidates this work became a 
required text, holding its place for half a 
century, as some of the elderly clergymen 
of the connection may recall with more or 
less vividness. 

Much of the unpublished writings of 
Martin Ruter consists of critical remarks 
upon various portions of the Holy Scrip- 
tures. As a close student of the Hebrew 
he delighted in making his own translations 
of the Old Testament, and his exegesis of 
certain passages is decidedly original. The 
comments on Proverbs, thirtieth chapter, 
make an elaborate display of his scholar- 
ship. The treatment of Second Psalms is 
much more popular and inspirational. 

Among the other unpublished writings 
of Dr. Ruter, his Letters to a Young Min- 
ister are rather characteristic. Letter One 
has as its theme "General Observations." 

My Dear William : As you have engaged in 
the work of the gospel ministry, I have been 
led by several considerations to offer you some 
thoughts in relation to your sacred calling. My 
regard for your personal happiness is a suffi- 
cient inducement to this, but I have a much 
stronger motive — in the interest which I feel in 
the cause of religion. 



Editor and Author 73 



You will expect me to write with the affection 
of a father, the plainness of a friend, and as an 
old minister without reserve. The office which 
you have taken upon you is most sacred in its 
nature, and it is charged with responsibility the 
bare thought of which is enough to make us 
tremble. 

You are not sent to negotiate peace between 
an earthly prince and his enemies, but you are 
commissioned from heaven, if you be a true 
minister of Christ, to negotiate peace between 
God and the world. How weighty and solemn 
is this thought ! Let me then say unto you : be 
diligent to know yourself as a man, to know 
yourself as a minister of Christ, to know your 
Master, the Prince of Peace, to know the world 
to whom you are sent, and to know the message 
with which you are charged. But you must not 
stop here. Knowledge alone is not sufficient. 
You must have wisdom — the application of your 
knowledge to the great purposes of your calling. 
You must be faithful, prudent, persevering, al- 
ways abounding in the work of the Lord. 

In order to acquire that knowledge and wisdom 
which are necessary to enable you to sustain with 
propriety, honor, and usefulness the character of 
a minister of the gospel, it will be proper to 
spend much of your time in reading and study. 
Much depends upon a proper selection of useful 
books. 

A mind naturally strong and discriminating, 
a large stock of general information, deep and 
extensive erudition, an intimate acquaintance with 
the principles of elocution, with a pleasing voice 
and an engaging aspect are requisite to render a 
preacher universally popular. But you are to 



74 



Martin Ruter 



remember that the gospel minister is not sent 
to gain popularity but to save souls. He is not 
to preach himself but Christ Jesus crucified. 
This truth should be indelibly impressed upon 
your heart; and it should influence the whole 
of your soul and all your public exercises. 

Gifts should not be despised; neither should 
they be misused. They are not bestowed for 
personal aggrandizement. They confer special 
obligations and should inspire sensations of a 
corresponding nature. Gratitude, humility, dili- 
gence, and a cautious regard to accountability 
should mark and distinguish those ministers who 
have received superior qualifications for the 
sacred office which they fill. 

You will not forget, my dear William, that 
genius frequently throws a splendid glare about 
itself and fascinates the multitude without pos- 
sessing substantial qualities. It may excite the 
admiration of thousands and yet not fix the 
attention of one individual on the great object 
of the gospel mission; while a minister, who has 
but limited powers of mind but is at the same 
time deeply religious, truly devoted to his calling, 
and fired with zeal for the Redeemer's glory, 
will not fail to be useful in the Church of 
Christ. The first will preach with the fascinat- 
ing charms of eloquence; the latter will preach 
in the demonstration of the Spirit and the 
power of God. 

It is of the very first importance to you to 
possess correct ideas concerning human obliga- 
tion, for the greater part of theological errors 
have originated from confounding the several 
systems of law, which God has given unto man. 
The depravity of human nature is a primary 



Editor and Author 75 



principle in revealed religion. The necessity of 
the supernatural aid of the Holy Spirit is predi- 
cated on our moral corruption. This divine aid 
is communicated to us only through the medium 
of the atonement of the glorious Redeemer. The 
doctrine of the atonement implies an extraor- 
dinary character; a character originally above 
law yet capable of suffering. Such a character 
we find in the eternal Logos — God made flesh. 
Thus you are led to the character of your glorious 
Master, who has charged you with the important 
mission of his grace to a sinful world. 

But this character has been called into question ; 
his divinity has been denied. Our love to God, 
our love to the Church, our consolation in time 
and our hope in eternity — all these come into 
collision with this denial. Into this subject I 
shall particularly enter in several of my subse- 
quent letters to you. In the meanwhile I wish 
you to weigh, with serious attention, the general 
observations which I have made in this letter. 

Letter Five was written on the topic, 
"Mystery Affords No Grounds for Objec- 
tions against the Divinity of Christ." 

My Dear William : You will not think it 
strange that men are fond of urging objections 
against the divinity of Christ on the ground of 
its being mysterious. They seem always ready 
to say: "How can we admit that Jesus who 
was born of Mary is the everlasting Jehovah? 
This subject is too mysterious for our compre- 
sion; and until its incomprehensibility shall be 
removed, we have good reasons to reject it." 

You will readily observe, my dear William, 



76 Martin Ruter 

that this is broad ground to assume, and as un- 
tenable as it is broad. What! are we to reject 
everything, which we cannot comprehend? This 
would be a sweeping stroke indeed — the very 
besom of destruction to the knowledge of man. 
For what science, what truth, within the whole 
circle of our knowledge, is in all respects within 
the comprehension of the human mind? 

Let me address these mighty sons of reason. 
Point out one single object which you perfectly 
understand. Is it spirit? But how little do you 
know of spirit! You may partially understand 
some of its qualities. But what do you know 
respecting the essence of spirit, the mode of its 
existence, or the possibilities of its nature? Can 
you enter into the deep recesses of the spiritual 
world? Can you ascertain the extremes of 
created, immaterial existence? Where are the 
bounds which circumscribe the lowest and highest 
degree of this existence? What are the utmost 
possible energies of created intelligence? What 
are the extreme bounds of intuitive perception 
or of rational deduction within the power of such 
intelligence? You know nothing about these 
things. 

But do you perfectly comprehend the material 
world? You may understand something respect- 
ing some of its properties. But what is the 
essence of matter? What are all its actual com- 
binations, or what the limits which bound its 
possible modifications? Can you satisfactorily 
answer one half of the questions which may be 
asked concerning one hair of your head? Mys- 
tery surrounds you on every side. You behold it 
in every place, in every object you contemplate 
it. The meanest reptile that crawls, or the 



Editor and Author 77 



smallest particle of matter, is an object in some 
respects incomprehensible to you. 

And will you, then, deny the divinity of 
Christ, because you cannot fathom the depths of 
this doctrine? You are always to remember, my 
dear friend, that all objects present themselves 
in two points of view to our consideration. One 
of these regards their essence, the possibilities of 
their nature, their modes of existence. Here 
everything is involved in mysterious darkness. 
In the other point of view objects present them- 
selves to our consideration in regard to the reality 
of their existence. Here with respect to many 
objects, we are surrounded with light. Truth 
rises before us, distinctly manifested to our 
perception by the light of evidence. While we 
tread this ground, while we confine our inquiries 
to the reality of things and the certainty of facts, 
we keep within the limits prescribed to human 
intellect by the God of nature. And here, with 
the proper management, of attention and labor, 
truth becomes, if not an easy, yet, generally, a 
sure acquisition. But the moment we pass these 
bounds we involve ourselves in darkness. Im- 
pelled by idle curiosity to seek after the essence 
of things, the secret principles which connect 
causes with their effects and other objects of 
equal abstruseness, we lose ourselves, and wander 
in a labyrinth of errors. 

In our search after truth it would be the most 
unreasonable thing to make the mystery which 
might be involved in a doctrine, the ground of 
its condemnation. The rejection of any propo- 
sition should be founded on the want of evidence 
to support its truth, and not on the incomprehen- 
sibility of the things to which it may relate. Our 



78 



Martin Ruter 



inquiry respecting any doctrine recommended to 
our acceptance should not be, "Is it mysterious?" 
but it should be, "Is it supported by sufficient 
evidence?" For nature is full of incomprehensi- 
bility; every truth has its mysteries. 

Therefore to reject the doctrine of the divinity 
of Christ because it is mysterious is very un 
reasonable; and it may be attended with conse 
quences the most ruinous, for the ground o 
which it is predicated is sufficiently broad t 
support universal skepticism. 

You will not expect, my dear William, that 
these boasted sons of reason, when they have 
been dislodged from a stronghold which they 
have taken under the covert of mystery, will 
immediately submit to the arms of truth. You 
will expect them to retreat until they lodge them- 
selves in some other deep recess in the moun- 
tains of incomprehensibility. From thence you 
may expect them to make up on you the follow- 
ing charge : "But it is so exceedingly strange 
that the God of glory should unite himself with 
human nature in the person of Jesus Christ that 
we know not how to admit it. It is utterly 
inconceivable to us." 

Here the objection is predicated on the same 
ground as that just before considered — on the 
inconceivable nature of the subject. No man who 
seriously considers this doctrine will deny that 
the union of the divine nature with humanity 
in the person of Jesus Christ is exceedingly 
strange, and in some respects utterly inconceiv- 
able to mortals. But are we to refuse to receive 
everything which is strange or inconceivable? 
In relation to this question the objector may be 
referred to the constitution of his own nature, 



Editor and Author 79 



in which the union of spirit and matter is abso- 
lutely necessary to his present existence. In this 
union he will find so much that is strange and 
mysterious that he will have to lay these con- 
siderations out of the argument, or else doubt 
his own being. For nothing appears, when duly 
considered, more strange and inconceivable than 
the composition of human nature — a spiritual sub- 
stance connected with a material body in such 
union that the present mode of man's existence is 
necessarily terminated by the dissolution of this 
union ! 

And yet spirit and matter, as far as we can 
judge from their known qualities and properties, 
are distinctly and absolutely different in their 
essences. This difference appears so great that 
we should think it impossible to unite them 
without destroying the nature of one or the other, 
were not the question determined to the contrary 
by matter of fact in the existence of man. 

Now, as matter and spirit, so entirely different 
from each other, are united in the composition of 
man, and by such union constitute one individual 
being, what shadow of objection can be raised 
against the divinity of Christ, because it implies 
that two distinct natures — the human and the 
Divine — exist in the Redeemer of the world? 
For God is a Spirit; and he created man in the 
image of his own spirituality. Is it more strange 
and inconceivable, that Spirit should be united 
with spirit than that spirit should be united with 
matter ? 



CHAPTER V 



THE PRESIDENT OF ALLEGHENY 

In the realization of his dominant passion 
for the pastorate Dr. Ruter served with 
notable success two city charges, both of 
them in Pennsylvania, one being in Phila- 
delphia and the other in Pittsburgh. From 
the General Conference of 1816 he went to 
the city of William Penn, being stationed at 
the ancient and illustrious Saint George's. 
This church structure was the largest in 
Methodism for fifty years and was looked 
upon as the Wesleyan Cathedral of the East. 
The first three Conferences of 1773-75 
were held in its spacious sanctuary. Saint 
George's was the mother church for the 
extension of the societies in Philadelphia. 
Martin Ruter became the senior pastor of 
the group of three in his second year. The 
Philadelphia charge then had a member- 
ship of fifteen hundred and fifty-two, hav- 
ing enjoyed an ingathering of two hundred 
and eighty-one the previous year. During 
his pastorate there was an aggressive ad- 
vance in the starting of new congregations. 
Saint John's, Nazareth, and Salem were 
80 



The President of Allegheny 81 

formed. Besides, many of the colored 
Methodists separated from the parent or- 
ganization on Fourth Street and began an 
independent church. Plans were also well 
under way, so that in 1818 Saint James 
camte into existence, and Holmsburg in 
1819. But from this rich field of itinerant 
labor Martin Ruter had been recalled by 
his brethren of earlier years to become 
the principal of the first Methodist sem- 
inary in New England. 

After Dr. Ruter decided at the General 
Conference of 1832 to resign as President 
of Augusta College, he received a call to 
Pittsburgh. That city was then entering a 
period of marked material prosperity and 
the churches of all denominations grew 
greatly in influence. He was the senior 
pastor at Smithfield, and early in the fall 
a sweeping revival of religion was under 
way. The large new church of Liberty 
Street was filled to its capacity and one 
hundred accessions made before Christmas. 
The awakening continued until spring, with 
an increase to two hundred additions, and 
spread to the town of Allegheny on the 
north side. The next year two pastors 
were associated with Dr. Ruter. The re- 
vival did not abate, and in a letter to the 
Rev. Wesley Browning on January 13, 



82 



Martin Ruter 



1834, he reported ninety-four received on 
trial since Conference. The senior pastor 
was again the leading man of his denomina- 
tion in the city and the promoter of every 
good work. He was active on the com- 
mittee which arranged for the founding of 
the Pittsburgh Conference Journal, the 
periodical of the Methodists. 

On July 17, 1833, he had gone with his 
brethren to their annual session at Mead- 
ville, the furthest north the Conference had 
ever sat. The presiding officer was Bishop 
Robt. R. Roberts, who, as a pastor, had pre- 
ceded Dr. Ruter in old Saint George's in 
1815. The Bishop had been a pioneer in 
northwestern Pennsylvania in 1796, and 
received his license to preach at Mumford's, 
four miles south of Meadville, in 1801. 
Though the Methodists had been slow in 
getting a foothold in the town, the first 
society being formed in 1826, now all the 
community and, in fact, all this region of 
the State welcomed with intense interest the 
one hundred and more clergymen, who were 
in deliberation at the county courthouse. 

The one reason for the coming of the 
Conference to Meadville was to bring to 
some definite conclusion the negotiations 
that had been pending for two years with 
the Pittsburgh body, as to whether it would 



The President of Allegheny 83 

abandon its enterprise of Madison College 
at Uniontown and assume charge of 
Allegheny. The decision was to be of signal 
moment to Martin Ruter. 

At Meadville, in 1815, Allegheny Col- 
lege had been founded by Timothy Alden, 
a graduate of Harvard. The State of 
Pennsylvania granted a charter that the in- 
stitution should be conducted on liberal 
principles, no person having any advan- 
tages because of his religious beliefs; it 
had given various donations to the total of 
$11,000. The citizens were loyal sup- 
porters in the organization and equipment of 
the college, A large, attractive building 
three stories in height had been erected 
upon a commanding site over the French 
Creek valley. This structure was named 
in honor of William Bentley, a Congrega- 
tional minister of Salem, Massachusetts, 
who bequeathed his valuable library to 
Allegheny in 1820. President Alden se- 
cured other notable donations of books 
from Judge Winthrop, of Cambridge, and 
Isaiah Thomas, of Worcester, so that the 
college had a remarkable collection of 
some nine thousand well-selected volumes, 
the largest library for years in any institu- 
tion west of the mountains. 

But building, books, a single man of 



84 



Martin Ruter 



exceptional talent in the faculty had not 
brought success to Allegheny. In that 
period, when the potency of some denomina- 
tional organization sustained the various 
prosperous institutions, the college at Mead- 
ville could not muster an assured patronage. 
Mr. Alden, who had changed from the 
Congregational to the Presbyterian faith, 
was not able to enlist the support of the 
Calvinists in Pennsylvania, engrossed as 
they were then with the rivalries of Jeffer- 
son and Washington Colleges, south of 
Pittsburgh. 

The Board of Trustees was willing to 
readjust its membership to include a score 
of Methodist preachers and laymen, and 
the Conference agreed to assume the pay- 
ment of mortgages and of indebtedness to 
President Alden, amounting to several 
thousand dollars. The educational plant at 
Meadville, however, was estimated at this 
time to be worth more than $40,000. The 
general management of the school was 
gained upon a pledge that the Church would 
send forth two hundred live itinerant and 
local preachers as agents to gather the 
students and the resources that would make 
the institution permanent. But there had 
been another important provision named 
to the Board: the Pittsburgh Conference 



The President of Allegheny 85 

would give its most celebrated and talented 
clergyman to be the president of Allegheny. 

The name and fame of Martin Ruter, 
D.D., as a man of erudition, were once 
again to be capitalized for the benefit of 
his denomination. The new executive be- 
came the conspicuous asset of the reorgan- 
ized control. The turn of affairs was not 
welcomed by the Pittsburgh pastor, as he 
frankly observes in his autobiography: "A 
new embarrassment arose in reference to 
what might be my duty. I had not only no 
desire to enter again upon college duties, 
but I earnestly desired, at least in reference 
to this college, to be excused from under- 
taking them. My brethren thought differ- 
ently and urged upon me the importance to 
the church of improving the opportunity, 
now offered, in securing the advantages of 
a good college for the benefit of our people 
and the community. I therefore consented 
to take charge of this college for a season." 

The president-elect busied himself with 
issuing at once an extensive prospectus of 
the opening of the college in September. 
It was announced that while Allegheny was 
to be under the patronage of a particular 
denomination, it was not to be sectarian, 
the trustees still being literary gentlemen 
of different religious persuasions. But the 



86 



Martin Ruter 



institution was to be thoroughly Christian, 
for any system of education that left out of 
view the principles of revealed religion 
would be materially defective in the think- 
ing of the Board. It was the preparatory 
department that started first, but on No- 
vember 4 there was a formal and elaborate 
opening of the college, Dr. Ruter making a 
notable inaugural address. 

It had been agreed that he should not 
remove to Meadville, until the upper classes 
were sufficiently advanced to require his 
instruction; but the immediate prosperity 
of the college was so pronounced that his 
presence was demanded while the academic 
year was yet in the midst of its second term. 
Though continuing as the pastor in Pitts- 
burgh, the president had gone with two 
trustees, who were judges in northwestern 
Pennsylvania, before the Legislature, to 
support a petition for financial aid. This 
visit resulted in a gift of $8,000, to be paid 
in four years on the condition of a like 
sum to be furnished by the friends of the 
enterprise. The regime of Dr. Ruter started 
with members enrolled in all the four col- 
lege classes, the number speedily reaching 
forty. By March, 1834, the figure stood at 
sixty, and Allegheny ranked fourth in the 
list of attendance upon Pennsylvania insti- 



The President of Allegheny 87 

tutions. The opening year ended with one 
hundred and twenty students, as compared 
with the record in the years of the first 
president, when twelve was a maximum 
number, six the more frequent, and in some 
periods none at all. In the fourteen years 
of the operation under Timothy Alden 
there had been twelve graduates. 

In the class of 1834 there were three 
Bachelors of Arts, to whom Dr. Ruter de- 
livered on September 25 a baccalaureate 
message, that was widely published in reli- 
gious and secular papers. The address 
abounded in vigorous exhortation: "Nor is 
it sufficient that graduates from our colleges 
should be constantly adding to their own 
acquirements, but they ought to aim at 
improving the arts and sciences themselves. 
Shall we be told that after so many im- 
provements no room remains for any 
others? This, we may presume, was the 
cry of the indolent prior to the days of 
Bacon, Locke, Newton, Herschel, and 
others, to whose industry and skill the 
world has been so much indebted. It will 
ever be the cry of all such as wish to shun 
the toil of investigation; but it will never 
be true. Rivers may dry up, fountains may 
fail, but the sources of useful knowledge 
can never be exhausted. The progress al- 



88 



Martin Ruter 



ready made, far from furnishing evidence 
that no more is practicable, affords the best 
encouragement to the adventurer in the 
arts, to the searcher after truth, to the 
lover of learning. Let this be well fixed in 
the mind of every student, every graduate, 
every scholar." 

Then again : "But, besides promoting the 
cause of education by encouraging schools, 
academies, and colleges, there are other 
means of improvement meriting our notice 
which may be rendered useful not only to 
the rising generation but to all classes of 
our citizens. The encouragement of gen- 
eral reading, by the establishment of 
libraries in our towns and villages and in 
the populous parts of the country, would 
secure great advantages at a small expense. 
It is desirable that students, in leaving the 
college, should be sensible of their import- 
ance in the great work of moral and 
mental cultivation. The illustrious Franklin 
was instrumental in the formation of a 
library in his adopted city, which is now one 
of the largest and most valuable in the 
United States. Let those who know the 
value of useful knowledge, and such as feel 
the want of it, follow his example. If they 
cannot make large collections, and form 
libraries containing thousands of volumes, 



The President of Allegheny 89 

let them gather hundreds ; and where this 
cannot be effected, let general reading be 
encouraged by the circulation of tracts and 
periodicals. At any expense, and by all 
rational means, let instruction be imparted 
and useful knowledge diffused throughout 
every land/' 

The president was also the professor of 
moral science, Oriental languages and 
belles-lettres. The college had the practice 
of semiannual public examinations, which 
were conducted for several days and 
largely attended by the citizens. The work 
of Dr. Ruter in the classroom was highly 
praised by many visiting committees. He 
was deeply interested in all grades of edu- 
cation; one of the provisions in the State 
aid of 1834 had been that Allegheny in- 
struct twelve students gratis in the English 
branches so they would be equipped to 
serve as teachers in the common schools. 
Pennsylvania was at this time putting into 
operation its first general law for primary 
education. The faculty of Allegheny was 
in keen sympathy with the system, and Dr. 
Ruter was active in the leading part Craw- 
ford County took in carrying out the spirit 
of the State regulations. 

A novel feature joined to the college 
under the new administration was the 



90 



Martin Ruter 



manual labor system. This provided the 
students with an acre of ground which they 
planted, or sent them into mechanical em- 
ployments about the town or under the 
direction of the college. The experiment 
was broadly advertised and resulted in the 
attraction to Meadville of many youths of 
limited financial means but of intense am- 
bition to secure an education at any cost. 
The type of Allegheny student was dis- 
tinctive ; he came largely from the homes of 
the common people ; very often he had 
reached his majority when he matriculated. 
He came to college and was not sent, hav- 
ing in mind a distinct goal after the period 
of his training. The larger part of those 
in attendance were professors of religion, 
but this by no means meant that the major- 
ity was looking to the ministry as a 
profession. 

The aim of the college, distinctly an- 
nounced, was not to prepare preachers nor 
to advance the position of the denomination, 
but it was to bear a share in the promotion 
of higher education and of religious in- 
struction, so that the youth should be bound 
more closely to the church. The courses 
of study prescribed were abreast of those 
taught in the leading institutions of the 
land. In these early years undergraduates 



The President of Allegheny 91 

were trained who came to notable positions 
in the educational world, such as Cyrus 
Nutt, president of Indiana University; 
George W. Clark and Jonathan Hamnett, 
famed professors in Allegheny many 
decades. Professor Matthew Simpson, 
when he entered upon his duties in the 
department of natural science, reported that 
there was an excellent equipment in ap- 
paratus. Dr. Ruter added to the teaching 
staff, bringing William Burton from Wes- 
leyan for the classics, and by his insistence 
getting Matthew Simpson from the min- 
istry. 

The president placed especial emphasis 
upon the religious life of the college. Craw- 
ford County had long enjoyed a reputa- 
tion as the place of notable camp meetings. 
Dr. Ruter, in his first year, addressed on 
a Sabbath a throng of five thousand on the 
grounds, six miles west of Meadville. 
There were ingatherings of the students 
at the revivals each year in the town, the 
faculty taking a leading part in the meet- 
ings. The head of Allegheny occupied the 
pulpits of both the Presbyterian and the 
Protestant Episcopal Churches. The de- 
nominational relations were exceptionally 
cordial. Presbyterian business and pro- 
fessional men continued to be among the 



92 



Martin Ruter 



most influential members of the college 
trustees. The town was alert and progres- 
sive, showing a keen interest in matters 
of reform. Dr. Ruter was foremost in the 
temperance campaign of the period and 
also was an active supporter of the Colo- 
nization Society. 

The numbers in the college classes con- 
tinued to grow, eight States sending repre- 
sentatives. But the preparatory depart- 
ment was also largely attended, for not a 
few were preparing themselves to teach 
in the expanding public school system of 
the State. The attitude of the president 
to his work is well revealed in the concise 
sketch of his entire life, which he drafted 
at Meadville, January 10, 1835. He wrote: 
"I must remain tw 7 o or three years, until the 
college shall have acquired a degree of 
prosperity and permanency sufficient to 
secure its usefulness. So soon as that shall 
be accomplished it is my earnest desire and 
I hope I shall be permitted, to retire from 
Meadville and enter on duties in which I 
may be equally useful and enjoy more ex- 
tensively the comforts of divine grace. In 
the meantime, O that God may give me a 
double portion of his Spirit, that I may at 
all times know and be able and willing to 
do my duties, whatever they may be. 



The President of Allegheny 93 

Hitherto, in all the labors and trials of my 
life, his grace has been sufficient for me." 

In 1836 the Pittsburgh Conference sent 
him as a delegate to the General Conference 
in Cincinnati. Ever moved by missionary 
zeal, he had grown deeply interested in the 
religious needs of Texas, then struggling 
to free itself of Mexican control. This land 
was largely occupied not by heathen 
people but persons from the United States, 
who had been reared under an evangelical 
ministry and were now outside of the 
church communion. Dr. Ruter, accord- 
ingly, supported the project of establishing 
a mission in the Southwest. He even ap- 
peared before the Missionary Society to 
urge the claims of Texas upon Methodism 
and volunteered himself for the field. Sev- 
eral felt that such a visitation then was 
premature, and the matter was held in 
abeyance. The enthusiasm of the president 
was doubtless reflected in the graduating 
oration of Cyrus Nutt on September 22, 
1836, when he spoke on "The Cause of the 
Texians." 

Dr. Ruter returned to Pennsylvania in 
time to assist in the organization of the 
Erie Annual Conference at Meadville, 
August 17, 1836, acting as secretary. The 
problem that constantly engrossed him 



94 



Martin Ruter 



during the four years at Allegheny was the 
financial. The Methodists had appointed 
agents who traveled and collected funds. 
One of the pledges to the old Board in 
1833 had been to raise a fund of $10,000 to 
endow a professorship in honor of Bishop 
Roberts. Besides, $2,000 must be collected 
yearly to guarantee a similar sum from the 
State treasury. All these obligations were 
fulfilled, but the previous debts of the Alden 
period absorbed much of the receipts. An 
effort was made to sell scholarships and 
even to begin a second fund for a profes- 
sorship in honor of Bishop Asbury. In the 
educational report of the General Confer- 
ence of 1836 it had been said that the friends 
of Allegheny College were less wealthy and 
extensive than those of Dickinson, though 
the college had fair prospects of usefulness. 

The president had summoned the Con- 
ference vigorously to its legal and moral 
responsibilities and also laid the plan for 
another petition to the Legislature to 
secure a larger appropriation. Though the 
attendance of students was over one hun- 
dred, tuition fees were low. Allegheny 
sorely needed adequate and permanent 
funds. The temporary gifts grew fewer 
as the financial stringency of the period 
increased; at the same time the situation 



The President of Allegheny 95 

in Texas became more favorable for the 
missionary enterprise. Therefore in June, 
1837, Dr. Ruter took the step he had kept 
in view from the first, that of resigning the 
presidency of Allegheny after a season. He 
gave an account of his stewardship in the 
Pittsburgh Christian Advocate, July 13, 
1837: "It is now four years since the Con- 
ference entered into an agreement with the 
trustees to patronize the college and place 
it as far as practicable in successful opera- 
tion, taking measures for securing funds 
with a view to its permanent prosperity. 
The result of this agreement is apparent in 
the success that has followed. Perhaps no 
seminary of learning has advanced more 
rapidly than this has since that time. I 
disregarded my own inclinations in 1833 
and accepted the appointment as president. 
I have done the utmost in my power to 
secure the success of the institution, keep- 
ing in view the entire interests of all its 
departments and the welfare of the stu- 
dents. But it has been my uniform inten- 
tion to labor in a different sphere of use- 
fulness whenever I could retire from the 
college without any injury to its interests. 
Believing I can now do this, and finding a 
door opened for me in other labors prob- 
ably as useful to the Church as any I could 



96 



Martin Ruter 



undertake, it seems expedient that I should 
follow the leadings of Providence." 

Dr. Ruter had indeed rendered efficient 
service. With his ripe experience as an 
educator, his influence had been potent in 
fixing the standards which guided the col- 
lege in succeeding administrations. The 
praise of his efforts was unstinted, yet 
all recognized the financial limitations he 
had faced. The verdict of the Erie Con- 
ference Committee was that no liberal in- 
stitution had ever furnished more instruc- 
tion to an equal number of students in the 
same time at the same expense than had 
Allegheny College under his administration. 
His Pittsburgh brethren testified, "that he 
had been placed in the responsible situation 
of presiding over the destinies of Allegheny 
at a time when success in the undertaking 
was doubtful, but through every embarrass- 
ment he had conducted his high trust with 
distinction and resigned his post only when 
the persevering efforts of friends were re- 
quired to render permanent success certain." 

The Board of Trustees accepted the 
resignation with reluctance. It felt that as 
few changes as possible should be made 
when the college was in the course of suc- 
cessful operation. But now it dared to 
throw no obstacle in the way of so noble 



1 



The President of Allegheny 97 

and disinterested an enterprise as the mis- 
sion to Texas. 

In later years, after the future of 
Allegheny had been definitely assured by a 
permanent endowment, the alumni and 
friends, planning greatly needed improve- 
ments, did honor to the memory of the 
first Methodist President. There was 
erected Ruter Hall in 1853, as a companion 
to the classic Bentley Hall of 1820. A por- 
tion of the funds for the new building was 
secured by a unique project; a book of 
Original Sermons, containing the discourses 
of ministers of the Pittsburgh and Erie Con- 
ferences, was prepared and widely sold. A 
sermon by Dr. Ruter from the text, Job 
14. 14, closed the volume. The amount 
realized from this source was some $1,800. 
The remaining cast was borne by the citi- 
zens. Ruter Hall became a very essen- 
tial part of the college equipment. Here 
were housed the library and the museum for 
half a century. The chapel, placed on the 
second floor of Ruter, has been the center 
of the religious life and influence of Old 
Allegheny. From its sacred precincts have 
gone forth to the ends of the earth a Kings- 
ley, a Thoburn, a Mansell, a Waugh, a 
Long, a Harris, and an Oldham, emulating 
the missionary zeal of Martin Ruter. 



CHAPTER VI 



THE APOSTLE TO TEXAS 

In the autobiography Dr. Ruter has 
recorded: "In May, 1836, I attended the 
General Conference at Cincinnati, and felt 
an earnest desire to be more actively en- 
gaged in the itinerant work of the ministry. 
At the Conference I offered myself as a 
missionary to Texas, to go whenever it 
should be deemed a proper time for enter- 
ing that field of labor. The superintendents 
were all consulted on the subject, and all 
agreed in an opinion favorable to the enter- 
prise. It was believed that the unsettled 
condition of the country, in reference to 
its political relations, was not suitable for 
the immediate establishment of a mission, 
but that in all probability it might be within 
a few months. All were favorable to my 
appointment when the proper time should 
arrive." 

Because of the many Americans who 
had migrated into Texas, while still a 
Mexican province, there was a lively 
interest on the part of the Church in the 
spiritual welfare of those without the means 
98 



The Apostle to Texas 99 

of grace in their new homes. The Mexican 
rule was unfavorable to Protestantism, and 
no religion but the Catholic was recognized. 
Nevertheless, workers had gone from the 
Methodist connection into the forbidden 
territory, even as early as 1824 to the 
Austin colony. Henry Stevenson was 
formally named by the Mississippi Con- 
ference in 1835, as a missionary to Texas, 
and the camp meetings held that year were 
in violation of religious laws. 

The decisive battle of San Jacinto, April 
21, 1836, changed the outlook. A nation- 
wide sympathy had been aroused for the 
Texans after the massacres of the Alamo 
and Goliad. The government of the 
United States held itself scrupulously 
aloof, though the proclaimed republic was 
known to desire annexation at some future 
date. The Missionary Society in New 
York received appeals for missionaries in 

1836, while the settlers endeavored to meet 
their spiritual needs by getting the supplies 
of the Sabbath School Union and the Bible 
Society. The Texas Constitution of April, 

1 837, was a liberal instrument, granting 
freedom of religion and of the press. It 
was evident that there were many com- 
munities ready for the gospel message. 
There now seemed less prospect of con- 



100 Martin Ruter 



tinued war with Mexico, and the Methodist 
bishops felt the time had come for taking 
systematic measures to evangelize Texas, 
the youngest republic on the American 
continent. 

In April Bishop Hedding made the ap- 
pointment of Martin Ruter to be the super- 
intendent of the Texas mission. Robert 
Alexander, of the Mississippi Conference, 
and Littleton Fowler, of the Tennessee, had 
previously volunteered and were named as 
his assistants. In a letter of April 16, 
1837, to the Bishop, Dr. Ruter wrote: "I 
have determined to go to Texas in con- 
formity with the appointment, contained in 
your letter. The college can now prosper 
in other hands, and to me it appears that I 
could do more good in Texas, or in some 
mission than in the college. If I can be 
released for a while, and be permitted to 
labor in the more active duties of the min- 
istry, I shall be thankful. ,, 

After tendering his resignation on June 
21 to the trustees of Allegheny College, 
Dr. Ruter quickly made his plans for de- 
parture. A flatboat was prepared at Mead- 
ville, and in July he embarked on French 
Creek with his family and possessions. This 
was not an unusual method of travel. 
Alfred Brunson, one of the stalwarts of the 



The Apostle to Texas 101 

Pittsburgh Conference and the "Silas Hope- 
well" of the Radical discussions of 1829, 
when appointed a missionary to the North- 
west, had gone from Meadville by boat in 
1836 on a twenty-five-hundred-mile voyage 
at an actual cost of $6.50. A great throng 
of citizens and students assembled at the 
Port of Mead to bid an affectionate fare- 
well to the apostle to Texas and his party. 
Missionary hymns were sung and prayers 
offered, while all the town wished him a 
fervent Godspeed in his courageous enter- 
prise. 

The boat with its precious freight made 
its way down French Creek to Franklin, 
thence by the Allegheny to Pittsburgh, 
where it floated into the broad Ohio. By 
this same route the Rev. Timothy Alden, 
the founder of Allegheny College, had made 
his way from the East, up to Meadville in 
1815. Zion's Herald printed severe criti- 
cisms of the mode of travel of Dr. Ruter, 
since it is said that by oar and pole he 
propelled his craft as far as Marietta. But 
the former college president was in excellent 
health and vigor at this time, and the season 
of the year was most propitious for such a 
primitive style of locomotion. Moreover, 
it afforded him a chance to tie up his boat 
at nights, wherever there were villages and 



102 



Martin Ruter 



collections of people on the banks, and 
there hold evangelistic services. 

The trip was so planned that he reached 
Steubenville while the Pittsburgh Confer- 
ence was in session. It was an inspiring 
experience to join in the services of the 
week with his brethren and the final prayer 
of the Conference was offered by him as 
a fitting benediction. Resuming his trip, 
he visited Augusta and its familiar scenes 
and reached Cincinnati, August 20. Here 
he laid in a stock of supplies, essential to 
his new field of labor — hymn books, Dis- 
ciplines, Bibles and Sunday school litera- 
ture. Dr. Charles Elliott, editor of the 
Western Christian Advocate, sent a large 
supply of the church paper in advance to 
Texas, to announce the coming of the mis- 
sionary. Thence the party moved on to 
New Albany, Indiana, as the first objective 
of the journey. A home was made for 
Mrs. Ruter, who was to reside here until 
the mission should become established. 

The Indiana Annual Conference had its 
session at New Albany at this time, and 
the new superintendent to a foreign field 
held important consultations with Bishops 
Roberts and Soule about the work ahead. 
However, since New Orleans was being 
scourged at this season with yellow fever, 



The Apostle to Texas 103 

Dr. Ruter delayed his departure for a few 
weeks, visiting Kentucky towns in the in- 
terest of his cause. At length he took 
steamer down the Ohio and the Mississippi 
and was a conspicuous passenger in the 
company. An untimely demise required 
him to read the burial service, and on the 
Sabbath day he held two preaching ser- 
vices, displaying here, as everywhere, the 
dominant evangelistic note of his life. 

Some persons of little faith had opposed 
the program of the Church for Texas, 
alleging it to be a land of banditti and 
rebels. But the true Wesleyan made 
answer that he must preach the gospel to 
every creature ; if that creature is bad, the 
need of the gospel is doubly great. There 
were those who tried to discourage our 
missionary, magnifying the distance and the 
danger of Texas; the confident reply of 
Dr. Ruter was, "Heaven is no further from 
Texas than from Pennsylvania." He went 
to his new field at the age of fifty-two, 
with the same enthusiasm that attended 
him, a youth of twenty, appointed to Mon- 
treal. A holy zeal consumed him. He was 
literally a flaming evangel in the Southwest. 
Within five months he had wrought a work 
which, had there been no other service of 
his lifetime to his church, would have 



104 Martin Ruter 

assured him a permanent place as a maker 
of Methodism in America. 

The superintendent of Texas met Robert 
Alexander on November 23 at Games 
Ferry on the Sabine River, en route to 
the Mississippi Conference. All night long 
he planned with his assistant as to the 
campaign ahead. The immediate burden 
of the following months fell almost en- 
tirely upon Dr. Ruter. His second assis- 
tant, Littleton Fowler, was the chaplain of 
the Senate at Houston. The district for 
evangelism was practically the whole re- 
public of Texas. A letter back to New 
Albany thus forecast the future: "I hope 
to have by next April a good foundation 
for Methodism in Texas; but all depends 
on the aid of a gracious Providence. From 
all appearances, I believe it is the time to 
commence missionary labors here, and I 
rejoice in the glorious privilege of doing 
good among the destitute, who are glad and 
anxious to hear the gospel preached. After 
spending the summer in the North I must 
try to get some churches built, some school- 
houses commenced, and have a foundation 
laid for a college, and also have an abun- 
dance of tracts, Bibles, and other books 
scattered over the country/' 

A page from the journal of Dr. Ruter, 



The Apostle to Texas 105 

describing his activities for the first month, 
proves how faithfully he redeemed the 
time: 

Crossed the Sabine on November 23, 1837. 
Friday, 24. Rode to San Augustine and preached 
to a small assembly in a schoolhouse. Saturday, 
25. Rode to Ingleduve's house, within eight 
miles of Nacogdoches. Sabbath, 26. Rode to 
Nacogdoches, preached two sermons in Masonic 
Hall. Continued journey and Wednesday reached 
Mr. Mitchell's house and preached. Continued 
journey until Friday. December 1. Reached 
Washington on the Brazos, and preached at a 
schoolhouse. Saturday, 2. Preached again. Sun- 
day, 3. Attended Sunday school and spoke; 
heard a Baptist preacher at eleven, and then 
preached at three, met the class and received one 
into Society. Felt encouraged in the work of 
the Lord. O may Christ's kingdom rapidly ad- 
vance in Texas ! Amen. Monday, 4. Rode 30 
miles to Mr. Foster's. Tuesday, 5. Rode to Mr. 
Ayers', five miles. Wednesday, 6. Rode to Mr. 
Kenny's. Thursday, 7. To San Felipe. Friday, 
8. To Mercer's neighborhood on the Colorado. 
This ride was through a thirty-five mile prairie, 
amidst heavy rains. Saturday, 9. Preached at 
Capt. Hurd's. Sabbath, 10. Preached at eleven, 
and at three, to the blacks, twelve in number. 
At candlelight met a few in class, and formed 
a society of nine members; Monday, 11. Went 
to Fort Bend, over a prairie of thirty-six miles. 
Tuesday, 12. Very difficult traveling on account 
of violent storm. Wednesday, 13. Came to 
Houston, twenty-five miles; here remained a 
week, became acquainted with the place, people, 



106 Martin Ruter 

members of the Legislature, officers, etc. Sun- 
day, 17. Preached in Congress Hall. Afternoon 
with Brother Fowler, formed a Sunday School 
Society. Wednesday, 20. Went to Cartwright's. 
Thursday, 21. Went to San Felipe. Friday, 22. 
Rode to Rev. J. W. Kenny's, through the prairie 
lands, against the north wind. Saturday, 23. 
Visited Brother Ayers and returned. 

Everywhere the missionary received a 
hearty welcome. The country, however, 
bore mute witness to the devastation of the 
Mexican army a few months earlier. Even 
in many districts that had not been occupied 
the houses were cabins without glass win- 
dows and with little furniture. The centers 
of population were widely scattered, but the 
tide of immigration had already begun to 
set in steadily. Dr. Ruter was ready to go 
to the further settlements on the San 
Antonio River, though in these parts travel 
was done in companies of six or more fully 
armed. Our messenger of peace was firmly 
resolved, as for himself, when alone or 
with companions, he would carry no 
weapons "made with hands." His general 
purpose was to learn by personal observa- 
tion the condition of the inhabitants, and 
what settlements would readily receive 
preaching. Ignorance, superstition, and 
godlessness had long held sway. Only an 
occasional local preacher or a traveling 



The Apostle to Texas 107 

clergyman in former years had conducted 
a religious service. 

Now on all sides the evidences multiplied 
that the people wished the gospel to be 
preached and churches to be established. 
Within sixty days Dr. Ruter had traveled 
twelve hundred miles, and in a territory 
where there had not been a single Prot- 
estant Church he organized four circuits, 
with Houston, Washington, Trinity, and 
San Augustine as centers. A dangerous 
trip was taken in late January, when under 
the escort of three men armed with rifles, 
he went to Bastrop on the Colorado, being 
the first preacher to push that far south. 
He rode through a region where marauding 
Indians roamed, passing grim evidences of 
their deeds in several graves of murdered 
travelers. The visit resulted in the starting 
of a society of fifteen members, and the 
preacher counted the peril of the way to the 
glory of God. The judgment of our Amer- 
ican observer on the contemporary political 
situation possesses suggestive interest. On 
February 13, 1838, he wrote to Mrs. Ruter : 
"It is pretty well ascertained that the Mexi- 
cans are making no preparations for invad- 
ing Texas. They are broken and divided 
among themselves ; they are very poor, have 
but little courage and most of their peasantry 



108 



Martin Ruter 



are in as great bondage to the wealthy as 
are the Russian serfs. If no other nation 
meddles with Texas besides Mexico, I am 
convinced there is nothing to fear." 

The winter of these labors was unusually 
severe for that latitude; it was succeeded 
by an early and warm spring. Climate 
and weather made no change in the plans 
of evangelization. The superintendent 
spared himself no fatigue and turned aside 
for no storm. But ever, daily, on his big 
horse, at a sweeping trot, he rode, visiting 
towns, communities, and families, preaching 
wherever he could secure hearers, even 
though the audience was but a single family. 
Every village on his route was visited with 
the hope of arousing an interest in the 
cause of religion and effecting eventually an 
organization. Wherever there was a 
Macedonian cry he responded. Though 
wise and prudent hitherto in husbanding 
his strength, there was no prudence now 
in the face of the vastness and the urgency 
of the need before him. 

One of the new parishioners in the 
republic bears this witness : "He would ride 
several miles in a day, and preach sermons 
sometimes to not more than fifteen or twenty 
persons, in a little smoky cabin, with as 
much energy and fervor as I should have 



The Apostle to Texas 109 

expected had he been addressing thousands 
in a splendid church. His work was his 
pleasure. It was common with him to ask 
permission to preach in places where he 
would stop in traveling. More than one 
housekeeper can testify to the interest with 
which she collected her family after supper 
to hear the word of instruction from his 
benevolent lips.'" 

The region traversed in Texas was the 
interior from Sabine County to the Colo- 
rado on the southwest. After reaching the 
western limits, he again returned to Inde- 
pendence, having secured the names of 
three hundred Methodists living in the 
republic who were to form the nucleus of 
the new church. Quarterly conferences 
were held and various sections revisited 
which needed the superintendent's presence. 
Within ninety days fifteen hundred miles 
had been traveled and twenty societies 
formed. In San Augustine, after his first 
visit, $4,000 were subscribed for a house 
of worship; several church structures were 
soon in process of erection. In Washing- 
ton his enthusiasm for the building of a 
church was so contagious that the work 
was steadily pushed until the building was 
ready to be used by him for divine service 
in the early spring. 



110 



Martin Ruter 



The practical qualities of the man were 
shown in the system and the care with 
which he secured sites and had deeds pre- 
pared for the ground upon which to erect 
churches and schoolhouses. However, none 
of the material prospects of this promising 
land lured him, mindful as he was of his 
appointment for moral and religious pur- 
poses alone. Yet the beauty of the country, 
of which he expressed the liveliest appre- 
ciation again and again, furnished a solace 
for his strenuous labors. The plains, with 
their distant horizon and covered with the 
flowers of spring, seemed to him an en- 
chanted land. "It appeared indeed a fit 
place for the assemblies of angels, bright- 
ened as it was with the sunbeams of heaven ; 
no human voice, no hum of business, the 
world shut out, as out of a closet. But who 
can doubt that God is there! Who that is 
devout can fail to experience his presence, 
and to enjoy communion with the Divine 
Spirit?" In a letter to his daughter, Mrs. 
S. R. Campbell, he expressed his preference 
for the region, watered by the Colorado, 
and spoke of the river as a beautiful one, 
not much larger than French Creek in 
Pennsylvania but somewhat deeper. 

One of the most important visitations of 
Dr. Ruter was the week spent at Houston, 



The Apostle to Texas 1 1 1 

during the session of the Legislature. He 
preached twice in Congress Hall and made 
the acquaintance of President Lamar, 
General Sam Houston, and other officials. 
He gained their support, together with that 
of other leading men, for his plan of an 
institution of learning. Liberal offers were 
made by several large landowners to the 
amount of several thousand acres for the 
endowment of the school if Dr. Ruter could 
assume direction of it. He drew up a form 
of charter for its incorporation which he 
expected his friends to present at the next 
Texas Congress. The name contemplated 
was Bastrop University, to be located in 
the town on the Colorado. In a future trip 
to the Eastern and Northern cities our 
scholar planned to present the cause of 
education in the Southwest and secure gifts 
in support of the university so that the 
youth of Texas could obtain the best faci- 
lities for instruction within their own 
borders. 

The evangelistic work was pushed with 
feverish energy and the conviction grew 
more intense that to meet the irreligious and 
profligate conditions of the land, many 
more preachers were needed, and "preach- 
ing beyond measure." Dr. Ruter reached 
the decision that at least twelve more mis- 



112 



Martin Ruter 



sionaries must be speedily appointed to 
Texas. He would go to New York to lay 
the situation before the spring meeting of 
the bishops and endeavor to have the field 
manned on a large and adequate scale. The 
start was made, the Brazos crossed, but the 
superintendent was already a stricken man. 
On April 4 a light fever attacked him, a 
resultant of the fatigue of his severe cam- 
paign and his constant riding in the sun. 
He had traversed a distance of twenty-two' 
hundred miles at a fatal expense to a man 
of his years and previous habits of life. 
The fever was not regarded seriously at 
first, though it was increased by the activ- 
ities he still maintained. His private 
journal in April affords a pathetic record 
of the steady weakening of his powers : 

Tuesday, April 3. Rode to Mr. Cochran's. 
This day makes me fifty-three years of age and 
I this day set out to devote myself more than 
ever to God; first, by more prayer; second, by 
more attention to the Scriptures; third, by gen- 
eral reading and meditation. Wednesday, 4. 
Rode to Mr. Ayers's. Thursday, 5. Rode to Mr. 
Cochran's. Friday, 6. Rode to Mr. Bracy's. 
Saturday, 7. Being afflicted with fever, rode to 
Brother Kenny's. Sunday, 8. Too ill to preach, 
Brother Kenny took my place. Sunday evening. 
Find myself better and my mind stayed on God, 
to whose service I hope to be devoted forever. 
Monday, 9. Rode to Mr. Ayers's; still unwell, 



The Apostle to Texas 1 1 3 

and under temptation. Tuesday, 10. To Mr. 
Rabb's. Wednesday, n. To Mr. Kesee's. Feel 
somewhat improved in health. Thursday, 12. To 
Mr. Hall's. Trying to recoup my strength. Feel 
myself relieved in trusting in God, my only 
helper. Saturday, 14. Rode to Washington, and 
found letters from home, gave great comfort. 
Consult physicians. Sunday, 15. Rode to Hall's 
and preached. Received one sinner on trial. 
Monday, 16. Amidst affliction rode to Mr. 
Ayers's. Wednesday, 18. Rode to Brother 
Kesee's. Thursday, 19. Set off for Red River. 
Found my illness increasing. Friday, 20. Reached 
a Mr. River's. Saturday, 21. So ill I could not 
go on. Now here I am with a threatening fever 
among strangers. But my trust is in the Most 
High; his mercies are abundant, and live or die, 
O, let me do and suffer his blessed will. I 
commit to him myself and dear family, wife, and 
children, now and forever, Amen. Sunday, 22. 
Disease settling upon my lungs. Without medical 
advice, seemed judicious to return to Washing- 
ton. Rode twenty-eight miles to Mr. Fanthorp's. 
Monday, 23. Rode to Washington, seventeen 
miles. Feel much fatigued but comforted with 
the goodness of God. O, how unsearchable is 
his wisdom and his ways past finding out! 

Back at Washington, he received the best 
of medical attention, but typhoid pneumonia 
had developed. All was done that was 
within the power of devoted friends. His 
assistant, Robert Alexander, was with him 
until the end. He relates that in the week 
after the return to Washington he found 



114 



Martin Ruter 



Dr. Ruter quite ill, "but in a happy frame 
of mind, perfectly resigned to the will of 
God. I never before witnessed such pa- 
tience under affliction. We frequently 
engaged in prayer with him, and his whole 
soul seemed engaged in the exercise. At 
his request I preached for him one evening, 
a few friends being present. I hesitated a 
moment when he first proposed it, but his 
injunction was, 'The gospel is a treasure. 
This is what I need.' 99 

His composure, his faith, his resignation 
during weeks of suffering in a strange land 
were the fruits of his ideal Christian char- 
acter. The only concern he expressed was 
for the prosperity of the mission in Texas 
and of Zion at large. He said shortly 
before his last moments: "Why be impa- 
tient? I gave my family to God when I 
left them, and the way to heaven is as short 
and plain from Texas as from any other 
spot." He lingered until May 16 and then 
passed to his eternal reward. 

The heroic death of Dr. Ruter, falling at 
his post as a faithful watchman on the 
walls of Zion, sent a sensation of keen 
sorrow throughout Methodism, in so many 
portions of which his conspicuous and de- 
voted services and his exceptional Chris- 
tian graces had endeared him to all. The 



The Apostle to Texas 1 1 5 

news came to Boston at the time of the 
session of the New England Conference. 
It was first reported at the morning services 
on the Sabbath and references were made in 
the eloquent sermons of Dr. Wilbur Fisk 
and Dr. Henry Bascom to the translation of 
the servant of God in far-off Texas. The 
Methodist people of the city were pro- 
foundly moved, for many of them had sat 
under the ministry of Martin Ruter. When 
Bishop Soule on Monday morning made 
the official announcement of the death, his 
voice was so trembling with grief as scarcely 
to be audible, while those of the Conference 
who knew Dr. Ruter personally freely gave 
way to their sorrow. Not a few of the mem- 
bers of this body had been converted to the 
Christian life through his agency, and the 
resolutions passed upon his death bore testi- 
mony to their affectionate high estimate of 
his talents and his contributions to his 
Church and the cause of the Redeemer. In 
the memorial services later Dr. Ruter was 
honored as a missionary hero and placed in 
the glorious company of Melville Cox, who 
gave his life for Africa, and Dr. Coke, who 
had died on his way to labor in the island 
of Ceylon. 

In Texas the grief was most poignant. 
Dr. Ruter had come to be looked upon as 



116 



Martin Ruter 



the one who was to raise the republic to 
the moral, religious, and literary rank of a 
respectable, established nation; his sudden 
and unforeseen demise was felt to be a 
national calamity. The remains were placed 
in the cemetery at Washington, the grave 
inclosed by a stone wall and covered with 
a marble slab. Through the fidelity of his 
assistant, Robert Alexander, this inscription 
was placed to his memory: "Thirty-seven 
years an Itinerant Minister of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, and Superintendent of 
the first Mission of that Church in the 
Republic of Texas. He was respectable for 
his talents, distinguished for his learning 
and sincerely and devoutly pious." 

H. S. Thrall, in the History of Meth- 
odism in Texas, says, "Among the hun- 
dreds of men who have labored in Texas 
since this time not one has exceeded Dr. 
Ruter in learning, zeal, unwearied labor, 
and unflinching fidelity to duty." An envoy 
from the republic to Washington a few 
years later said, "The efforts of the Meth- 
odist ministry have done more toward secur- 
ing respect for the laws, submission to the 
courts of justice, regard to the sanctity of 
oaths, and, consequently, the general peace 
and good order of society than any other 
influence that has been exerted." 



The Apostle to Texas 1 1 7 

In Westminster Abbey the well-known 
tribute to the Wesleys declares, "God buries 
his workmen, but carries on his work." 
The death of Dr. Ruter became a challenge 
to the Church. His earliest letters from 
Texas, published in the Advocates, sounded 
a clarion call for recruits. Thus the tri- 
umphant exit from his labors sealed the 
obligation of Methodism to consummate 
the mission. In his old Ohio Conference 
there were six volunteers for the South- 
west. Now in 1838 a district with seven 
preachers and four hundred and fifty mem- 
bers was organized. The first Texas Con- 
ference met in 1840 at Rutersville, the 
General Conference having just created 
that body. There were nineteen traveling 
preachers, three districts, and eighteen 
hundred members in the new field. Ruters- 
ville was the site of the college that had 
been founded to the memory of the apostle 
to Texas. The school received aid from 
the republic and private sources, but, re- 
fused a charter as a denominational insti- 
tution, its future was handicapped so that 
the outbreak of the Civil War saw the 
closing of its doors. It seems peculiarly 
appropriate that for many years Rutersville 
was a great center for camp meetings. 

Charles Elliott, of the Western Christian 



118 



Martin Ruter 



Advocate, a close personal friend of Dr. 
Ruter, preached a notable memorial sermon 
at New Albany, Indiana, on July 8, 1838, 
on the theme, "A Prince and Great Man 
Has Fallen." His tribute was: "Every 
prince is not a great man, nor is every great 
man a prince. Dr. Ruter was both. He 
was a prince in that he filled some of the 
most important offices which the Church 
intrusts to the ablest and most faithful min- 
isters. He was a great man, great in good- 
ness, in literary attainments, and in useful- 
ness. To be good and useful form the 
highest degree of greatness." 

Nowhere in the land did the intelligence 
of Dr. Ruter's death bring a more severe 
shock than to Allegheny College. A stu- 
dent committee consisting of Jonathan 
Hamnett, Gordon Battelle, and Moses 
Crow — names of future distinction in 
Methodism — brought in resolutions at the 
college chapel testifying to their apprecia- 
tion of the permanent work wrought by 
him at Allegheny. At the student request, 
the president, Homer J. Clark, preached a 
memorial sermon on July 24 from the text 
in Isa. 62. 1, "For Zion's sake will I not 
hold my peace, for Jerusalem's sake I will 
not rest until the righteousness thereof go 
forth as brightness. ,, The preacher said 



The Apostle to Texas 1 1 9 

that the character and ministerial life of 
Dr. Ruter for nearly half a century was a 
practical comment on this passage of Scrip- 
ture. "From early youth to an advanced 
age, he devoted his time, his talents, his 
influence as a minister and a teacher to the 
service of the Church, and always for a 
compensation inadequate to the wants of his 
family. He could say at all times, with the 
apostle, 'Lo, I have left all and followed 
thee/ God is witness and ye are witness 
how holily and unblamably he behaved 
himself among you, who have so often sat 
under his spiritual ministrations, toward 
whom for several years he performed the 
duties of a faithful pastor, laboring with 
you day and night, watching for your souls 
as one conscious that he must give an ac- 
count. It was the constraining love of 
Christ and a deep and tender compassion 
for the souls of men that had sent him to 
Texas. Who of the young men of the 
college are willing to tread in the footsteps 
of Ruter, to devote their ardor and strength 
to the work of the Christian ministry? 
Who are willing to go and supply his place 
in the missionary field ?" 



CHAPTER VII 



THE MAN OF GOD 

The Spirit of God came early upon 
Martin Ruter. The "serious impressions" 
in the matter of a religious life that he had 
at the age of three do not seem so extraor- 
dinary in the light of the marked spiritual 
gifts that the lad of fifteen possessed. 
There was a rare Christian mother in the 
Vermont home. Her pastor's tribute ran: 
"She was truly a mother in Israel. She 
lived within speaking distance of paradise 
and kept up a constant communication." 
The boy, Martin, learned thoroughly at her 
knees the joy and the reality of the abiding 
witness of the Spirit in his life. It brought 
him into manhood with a character so 
estimable, so serene and so unsullied, that 
he forever remains in that select group of 
ideal Methodist ministers, whose genuine 
righteousness established them as the salt of 
the earth for all generations. The moral 
image of God, drawn upon his heart in the 
early days, continued strong and clear 
through every passing year. The consum- 
ing zeal of youth was reflected and reen- 

120 



The Man of God 121 



forced in the white heat of an absolute 
consecration of life, past its meridian. 

Dr. Ruter was a man of good personal 
appearance, rather above the middle size, 
well formed, and very erect. His coun- 
tenance was said to have been one expressive 
of power, somewhat bordering on sternness. 
He had easy and graceful manners. In 
conversation he was affable and lively. A 
wide range of subjects in politics, religion, 
and science was familiar to him, so that he 
excelled in informal discussions at social 
gatherings. He was also decidedly gifted 
with taste in the fine arts. He was highly 
appreciative of painting, poetry, and music. 
His habit was not to sing other than sacred 
music, yet martial selections made a peculiar 
appeal to him. 

Dr. Ruter was strong in the friendships 
that he established. As a young minister 
he had the gracious bearing that won him 
much popularity and admiration. In pas- 
toral visitations he was eminently happy. 
There was no home entered in which he 
did not put its members at their ease quite 
unconsciously; he was a true shepherd of 
souls and of hearts. 

In June, 1805, the Rev. Martin Ruter 
was married to Miss Sybil Robertson, of 
Chesterfield, New Hampshire. There were 



122 



Martin Ruter 



two children of this union, who died in 
early years. The wife lapsed into invalid- 
ism and passed away in 1808. A year and 
more later, he was married to Miss Ruth 
Young, of Concord, New Hampshire. 
There were eight children of the second 
union, seven of them surviving the father. 
A son, A. W. Ruter, was a professor of 
languages in Allegheny College, then later 
in Transylvania University. The family 
was a most interesting one, and the father's 
position in it quite ideal. The education 
of his boys and girls became a matter of 
deepest concern to him. He first taught 
them with care the principles and practice 
of religion, then instructed them in science 
and useful knowledge. They were reared 
to shun the fashionable frivolities of the 
day and to seek after no useless attain- 
ments. In all his busiest years Dr. Ruter 
devoted hours to talks with them on sub- 
jects of morality, religion, literature, and 
science. His daughter bears loving witness 
that his watchfulness never flagged, and, 
like a sentinel, he was ever at the post of 
duty. He possessed a tender affection for 
them, so that when a child was about to 
start upon a journey his hand was the last 
extended in farewell and his voice whis- 
pered the parting injunction, "Do not forget 



The Man of God 123 



to pray," or "Remember, you have named 
your Saviour." He kept up an extensive 
correspondence with each of them through 
the years, sending messages of admonition 
and encouragement. 

In the pulpit Dr. Ruter spoke everywhere 
with a high degree of acceptance to his 
congregations. He possessed much more 
than in a common degree the qualities 
necessary to an interesting and useful 
preacher. In his early ministry he showed 
much readiness of speech and fluency. 
This gained him speedily in New England 
his repute as an orator. He possessed from 
his wide reading and studies an excellent 
vocabulary. His voice was clear and agree- 
able. It is true that in his later years he 
fell into a certain uniformity of cadence in 
his delivery, but this was not unpleasant to 
his hearers. His preaching has been de- 
scribed as consciously adapted to please, to 
instruct, and to awaken. He aimed to 
present the simple doctrines of the gospel 
in all their purity and fullness and to bring 
them to have effect upon the heart and 
conscience of the pew. 

His sermons were to some extent imag- 
inative, but more likely to be historical, 
doctrinal, and argumentative. The memoir 
of the Pittsburgh Conference quaintly ob- 



124 Martin Ruter 

serves: "In the pulpit he was solid, grave, 
warm, and dignified, generally listened to 
with pleasure, always with profit." For the 
most part he was not controversial in the 
pulpit; only in the years in New England 
had he been forced by the exigencies of the 
time to theological disputations. The 
preacher's desk was not the place chosen 
by him to make a display of his learning, 
even though he had the ability to read the 
Scriptures in nine languages. His mission 
was to preach the word of God, as the most 
effective message, backed by the power of 
the Holy Spirit. 

Having learned intimately in the days 
of his youth of the doctrines, practices, and 
writings of Wesley, Martin Ruter was a 
thorough Methodist. He had no part in 
the revolutionary movements within the 
Church in the late twenties. He was deeply 
loyal to the discipline and the polity of his 
denomination. In theology he was uni- 
formly orthodox. His doctrine was sound. 
He had no taste for wild speculations in 
thought or for matters of doubt. 

This man of God appears in his day and 
generation as one who had been given his 
treasure in an earthly vessel, "that the ex- 
cellency of the power may be of God and 
not of us." It has pleased Dr. Nathan 



The Man of God 125 



Bangs in the History of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church to speak captiously of 
this son of New England. He opines that 
it was not pretended that the mind of Dr. 
Ruter was of the first order, "that for 
strength of intellectual powers and for 
depth and variety of learning, many others 
stood far in advance'' of our self-taught 
scholar. Dr. Bangs also charges that as the 
president of Augusta and of Allegheny he 
did not shine with the brilliancy equal to 
general expectations. There surely is little 
evidence that can be advanced to substan- 
tiate this imputation upon the success of 
Dr. Ruter as a college executive. All of the 
testimony is strong to the contrary, while 
the same causes were operative in each in- 
stance that led to his resignation, namely, 
the failure of adequate financial support by 
the Methodist Conferences pledged to sus- 
tain the institutions and his consuming 
desire to engage in evangelistic and mis- 
sionary work. 

The salient characteristics of our preacher 
and educator stand forever fixed in bold 
outline. He was a man of untiring energy ; 
his work was done with decision and pre- 
cision. No contemporary was more con- 
scientious and efficient in the economy of 
his time. Few, if any, have surpassed him 



126 



Martin Ruter 



in results gained as the fruit of such assid- 
uity and system. He does not have his 
superior in Methodism for inflexible in- 
tegrity. His constant rule was to shun 
every appearance of fault or wrong. At 
each period of his life he was moved by a 
high sense of duty. He pleased not him- 
self. He gave himself at last for a people, 
unchurched and far remote from all those 
whom he had loved and associated with 
through the years. 

The secret of it all is plain — the love of 
God shed abroad richly in his heart. His 
one concern for every day was that the 
grace of the Master should continue to be 
vouchsafed to him. The crowning motive 
of his life was the evangelistic, the one 
ambition that he might save souls. Bishop 
Hedding, his classmate in the ministry, 
testifies very tenderly, "I never knew 
Martin Ruter to fail of success in any cir- 
cuit or station." He was blessed abundantly 
in the conviction and conversion of the 
many who heard him. He was an itinerant 
always before he was a college president. 
He put the stress on religion rather than 
literature. In him there is a beautiful 
mingling of love and religious zeal. As he 
strove diligently to make himself conform- 
able unto the image which is in Christ, 



The Man of God 127 



he has become fashioned before our eyes 
into an acceptable and worthy type of 
Christian personality. 

The Methodists of America, North and 
South, have in this twentieth century re- 
vived the memory of Dr. Ruter by a gra- 
cious deed of love. The Rev. C. L. Spencer 
conceived the idea of removing the remains 
from the resting place in Washington, 
Texas, to Navasota. Bishop Mallalieu 
gave the project his effective support and 
the funds were secured to rear a granite 
shaft to mark the new grave. Here on 
December 3, 1901, the dedication of the 
monument was fittingly made by Bishop 
Joyce. The simple but eloquent inscription 
reads : "Ruter, an honored preacher, author, 
teacher, and founder of the Western Book 
Concern of the M. E. Church." 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



